Tools and techniques for automated mechanism design

Cuny Brooklyn College, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

Auctions are becoming increasingly common, both in the award of government contracts and in commercial transactions. Traditionally, game theory has been used by economists to design auction mechanisms, but, for various reasons, these undoubtedly powerful analytic methods are not always successful or appropriate. In contrast, this project is exploring computational approaches to auction design. The project focusses on two computational approaches. One of these is a co-evolutionary approach, in which mechanisms and participant trading strategies evolve together over time. The other uses reinforcement learning to set trading strategies and then searches for the best mechanism given these strategies. The project aims to develop these specific techniques along with software tools to support them, towards a point at which they can assist those who design auctions in the same way that computer-aided design (CAD) packages help mechanical engineers and architects.