Information Feedback and Efficiency in Multiattribute Double Auctions

KM Lochner and MP Wellman


First Conference on Auctions, Market Mechanisms, and their Applications, May 2009.

Copyright (c) 2009, Lochner & Wellman.

Abstract

We investigate tradeoffs among expressiveness, operational cost, and economic efficiency for a class of multiattribute double-auction markets. To enable polynomial-time clearing and information feedback operations, we restrict the bidding language to a form of multiattribute OR-of-XOR expressions. We then consider implications of this restriction in environments where bidders' preferences lie within a strictly larger class, that of complement-free valuations. Using valuations derived from a supply chain scenario, we show that an iterative bidding protocol can overcome the limitations of this language restriction. We further introduce a metric characterizing the degree to which valuations violate the substitutes condition, theoretically known to guarantee efficiency, and present experimental evidence that the actual efficiency loss is proportional to this metric. .

Includes material previously presented at the AAAI-08 Workshop on Trading Agent Design and Analysis, July 2008.


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