We study the problem of welfare maximization in a novel setting motivated by the standard stochastic two-stage optimization with recourse model. We identify and address algorithmic and game-theoretic challenges that arise from this framework. In contrast, prior work in algorithmic mechanism design has focused almost exclusively on optimization problems without uncertainty. We make two kinds of ...

This paper studies a model of mechanism design when agents’ preferences over transfers need not be quasilinear. In a general model of non-quasilinearity, we characterize dominant strategy incentive compatible mechanisms using a monotonicity property. We also establish a revenue uniqueness result: for every dominant strategy implementable allocation rule, there is a unique payment rule that can ...

We consider algorithmic problems in a distributed setting where the participants cannot be assumed to follow the algorithm but rather their own self-interest. As such participants, termed agents, are capable of manipulating the algorithm, the algorithm designer should ensure in advance that the agents’ interests are best served by behaving correctly. Following notions from the field of mechanis...

We introduce a new class of mechanisms, robust mechanisms, that is an intermediary between ex-post mechanisms and Bayesian mechanisms. This new class of mechanisms allows the mechanism designer to incorporate imprecise estimates of the distribution over bidder valuations in a way that provides strong guarantees that the mechanism will perform at least as well as ex-post mechanisms, while in man...

This paper studies the mechanism design problem for the class of Bayesian environments where agents do care for the well-being of others. For these environments, we fully characterize interim efficient mechanisms and examine their properties. This set of mechanisms is compelling, since interim efficient mechanisms are the best in the sense that there is no other mechanism which generates unanim...

In the customary VCG (Vickrey-Clarke-Groves) mechanism truth-telling is a dominant strategy. In this paper we study the sequential VCG mechanism and show that other dominant strategies may then exist. We illustrate how this fact can be used to minimize taxes using examples concerned with Clarke tax and public projects.

Strategy() AbstractStrategy(in agent: AbstractTradingAgent) endOfRound(in auction: Auction) eventOccurred(in event: AuctionEvent) getAgent(): AbstractTradingAgent initialise() modifyShout(in shout: Shout, in auction: Auction): Shout modifyShout(in shout: MutableShout): boolean protoClone(): Object reset() setAgent(in agent: AbstractTradingAgent) AbstractStrategy determineQuantity(in auction: Au...

The optimal allocation of resources in complex environments—like allocation of dynamic wireless spectrum, cloud computing services, and Internet advertising—is computationally challenging even given the true preferences of the participants. In the theory and practice of optimization in complex environments, a wide variety of special and general purpose algorithms have been developed; these algo...

The aggregation of conflicting preferences is a central problem in multiagent systems. The key difficulty is that the agents may report their preferences insincerely. Mechanism de­ sign is the art of designing the rules of the game so that the agents are motivated to re­ port their preferences truthfully and a (so­ cially) desirable outcome is chosen. We pro­ pose an approach where a mechanism ...