Efficient Allocation and Pricing of Multi-Featured Items

62 Pages Posted: 21 Nov 2014 Last revised: 27 Oct 2017

See all articles by Ozan Candogan

Ozan Candogan

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business

Saša Pekeč

Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

Date Written: May 28, 2014

Abstract

We introduce feature valuations, a new class of valuations that compactly capture preferences of agents who value items based on the features they possess. Such preferences are relevant in many important practical settings, such as Internet advertising markets (where impressions have associated attributes), labor markets (where workers’ skills/titles correspond to features), long-term bond markets (where coupon payments can be associated with features). We focus on settings where features can be organized in a tree network, and features possessed by items are captured by paths on the tree. In such settings, under appropriate consistency conditions, we establish that Walrasian equilibria exist. In addition, we provide a computationally tractable price update algorithm that terminates with market-clearing prices that support an efficient outcome.

Keywords: Auction design, iterative auctions, Walrasian equilibrium, network flows

Suggested Citation

Candogan, Ozan and Pekeč, Saša, Efficient Allocation and Pricing of Multi-Featured Items (May 28, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2528291 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2528291

Ozan Candogan (Contact Author)

University of Chicago - Booth School of Business ( email )

5807 S. Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
United States

HOME PAGE: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/ozan.candogan/

Saša Pekeč

Fuqua School of Business, Duke University ( email )

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
202
Abstract Views
1,232
Rank
257,181
PlumX Metrics