Constantinos Daskalakis

Monday, September 15, 2014
4:00pm 310 Gates Hall

I will present an optimization framework based on optimal transport theory, characterizing the structure of revenue-optimal mechanisms in single-bidder multi-item settings. Our framework provides closed-form descriptions of mechanisms, generalizes Myerson's celebrated single-item auction, and exhibits simple settings with very rich structure in their optimal mechanism. Our framework improves previous partial results, by establishing a strong duality theorem between optimal mechanism design and optimal transportation, and is enabled by an extension of the Monge-Kantorovich duality that accommodates convexity constraints.

The talk is based on work with Alan Deckelbaum and Christos Tzamos