Communication Separations for Truthful Auctions: Breaking the Two-Player Barrier
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2024
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| _version_ | 1866929499022557184 |
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| author | Ron, Shiri Thomas, Clayton Weinberg, S. Matthew Zhang, Qianfan |
| author_facet | Ron, Shiri Thomas, Clayton Weinberg, S. Matthew Zhang, Qianfan |
| contents | We study the communication complexity of truthful combinatorial auctions, and in particular the case where valuations are either subadditive or single-minded, which we denote with $\mathsf{SubAdd}\cup\mathsf{SingleM}$. We show that for three bidders with valuations in $\mathsf{SubAdd}\cup\mathsf{SingleM}$, any deterministic truthful mechanism that achieves at least a $0.366$-approximation requires $\exp(m)$ communication. In contrast, a natural extension of [Fei09] yields a non-truthful $\mathrm{poly}(m)$-communication protocol that achieves a $\frac{1}{2}$-approximation, demonstrating a gap between the power of truthful mechanisms and non-truthful protocols for this problem.
Our approach follows the taxation complexity framework laid out in [Dob16b], but applies this framework in a setting not encompassed by the techniques used in past work. In particular, the only successful prior application of this framework uses a reduction to simultaneous protocols which only applies for two bidders [AKSW20], whereas our three-player lower bounds are stronger than what can possibly arise from a two-player construction (since a trivial truthful auction guarantees a $\frac{1}{2}$-approximation for two players). |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_08241 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Communication Separations for Truthful Auctions: Breaking the Two-Player Barrier Ron, Shiri Thomas, Clayton Weinberg, S. Matthew Zhang, Qianfan Computer Science and Game Theory Computational Complexity We study the communication complexity of truthful combinatorial auctions, and in particular the case where valuations are either subadditive or single-minded, which we denote with $\mathsf{SubAdd}\cup\mathsf{SingleM}$. We show that for three bidders with valuations in $\mathsf{SubAdd}\cup\mathsf{SingleM}$, any deterministic truthful mechanism that achieves at least a $0.366$-approximation requires $\exp(m)$ communication. In contrast, a natural extension of [Fei09] yields a non-truthful $\mathrm{poly}(m)$-communication protocol that achieves a $\frac{1}{2}$-approximation, demonstrating a gap between the power of truthful mechanisms and non-truthful protocols for this problem. Our approach follows the taxation complexity framework laid out in [Dob16b], but applies this framework in a setting not encompassed by the techniques used in past work. In particular, the only successful prior application of this framework uses a reduction to simultaneous protocols which only applies for two bidders [AKSW20], whereas our three-player lower bounds are stronger than what can possibly arise from a two-player construction (since a trivial truthful auction guarantees a $\frac{1}{2}$-approximation for two players). |
| title | Communication Separations for Truthful Auctions: Breaking the Two-Player Barrier |
| topic | Computer Science and Game Theory Computational Complexity |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.08241 |