Decentralized Pricing in Minimum Cost Spanning Trees
16 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2008 Last revised: 6 Nov 2008
Date Written: October 31, 2008
Abstract
In the minimum cost spanning tree model we consider decentralized pricing rules, i.e. rules that cover at least the efficient cost while the price charged to each user only depends upon his own connection costs. We define a canonical pricing rule and provide two axiomatic characterizations. First, the canonical pricing rule is the smallest among those that improve upon the Stand Alone bound, and are either superadditive or piece-wise linear in connection costs. Our second, direct characterization relies on two simple properties highlighting the special role of the source cost.
Keywords: Pricing rules, Minimum cost spanning trees, Canonical pricing rule, Stand-alone cost, Decentralization
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation