Robust Competitive Ratio for Deterministic Monopoly Pricing

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: van Eck, Tim S. G., Kleer, Pieter, van Leeuwaarden, Johan S. H.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author van Eck, Tim S. G.
Kleer, Pieter
van Leeuwaarden, Johan S. H.
author_facet van Eck, Tim S. G.
Kleer, Pieter
van Leeuwaarden, Johan S. H.
contents We study deterministic monopoly pricing under partial knowledge of the market, where the seller has access only to summary statistics of the valuation distribution, such as the mean, dispersion, and maximum value. Using tools from distributionally robust optimization and max-min analysis, we evaluate pricing strategies based on their competitive ratio (CR). We characterize the worst-case market scenario consistent with the available information and provide a complete solution for minimizing the CR. Our analysis also covers optimal pricing under various measures of dispersion, including variance and fractional moments. Interestingly, we find that the worst-case market for CR coincides with that for expected revenue. Using proof techniques tailored to the CR framework, we further examine how dispersion and maximum valuation influence optimal deterministic pricing. These results offer practical guidance for setting robust prices when market information is limited.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_06619
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Robust Competitive Ratio for Deterministic Monopoly Pricing
van Eck, Tim S. G.
Kleer, Pieter
van Leeuwaarden, Johan S. H.
Optimization and Control
We study deterministic monopoly pricing under partial knowledge of the market, where the seller has access only to summary statistics of the valuation distribution, such as the mean, dispersion, and maximum value. Using tools from distributionally robust optimization and max-min analysis, we evaluate pricing strategies based on their competitive ratio (CR). We characterize the worst-case market scenario consistent with the available information and provide a complete solution for minimizing the CR. Our analysis also covers optimal pricing under various measures of dispersion, including variance and fractional moments. Interestingly, we find that the worst-case market for CR coincides with that for expected revenue. Using proof techniques tailored to the CR framework, we further examine how dispersion and maximum valuation influence optimal deterministic pricing. These results offer practical guidance for setting robust prices when market information is limited.
title Robust Competitive Ratio for Deterministic Monopoly Pricing
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.06619