loading...
 This Article 
   
 Share 
   
 Bibliographic References 
   
 Add to: 
 
Digg
Furl
Spurl
Blink
Simpy
Google
Del.icio.us
Y!MyWeb
 
 Search 
   
2003 IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology (CEC'03)
Auctions with Untrustworthy Bidders
Newport Beach, California
June 24-June 27
ISBN: 0-7695-1969-5
Sviatoslav Braynov, State University of New York at Buffalo
Tuomas Sandholm, Carnegie Mellon University
The paper analyzes auctions which are not completely enforceable. In such auctions, the winning bidders may fail to carry out their obligations, and parties involved cannot rely on external enforcement or control mechanisms for backing up a transaction. We propose two mechanisms that make bidders directly or indirectly reveal their trustworthiness. The first mechanism is based on discriminating bidding rules that separate trustworthy from untrustworthy bidders. That is, the auctioneer offers two types of auction rules which are designed so that all trustworthy bidders choose one bidding rule, while untrustworthy bidders choose another. This allows the auctioneer to discover trustworthy bidders and to transact with them. The second mechanism is a generalization of the Vickrey auction to the case of untrustworthy bidders. We prove that, if the winner is considered to have the trustworthiness of the second-highest bidder, truthfully declaring one?s trustworthiness becomes a dominant strategy. We expect the proposed mechanisms to reduce the cost of trust management and to help agent designers avoid many market failures caused by lack of trust.
Citation:
Sviatoslav Braynov, Tuomas Sandholm, "Auctions with Untrustworthy Bidders," cec, pp.363, 2003 IEEE International Conference on E-Commerce Technology (CEC'03), 2003
Usage of this product signifies your acceptance of the Terms of Use.