arXiv:2608. 16699v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Motivated by modern marketplaces, where the platform or the seller routinely gathers detailed user profiles, we study a novel learning theoretic model that simultaneously involves information and mechanism design.
By Maria-Florina Balcan, Tejas Pagare, Karan Singh
FastCombo is a deep reinforcement learning method for iterative combinatorial auctions that learns price policies offline and applies them online with a single neural‑network forward pass. By formulating the problem as a partially observable Markov decision process, it assigns credit to queries that enable future decisions, thereby reducing the expected number of auction rounds. Experiments show that FastCombo achieves competitive clearing while cutting online price‑selection time by roughly 300–900 times compared to a standard Bayesian baseline.
By Luis F. Paul Tosta, Quinn Arnold, Gianluca Brero
arXiv:2606. 28943v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Learning to bid in repeated multi-unit auctions with bandit feedback poses a fundamental challenge.
By Junhan Li, Yuxin Zhang, Haoran Wang, Minghao Chen
arXiv:2606. 10112v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Characterizing revenue-optimal auctions for multi-item, multi-bidder settings remains a fundamental open problem, with no known closed-form solution existing beyond restrictive binary-type instances.
By Yanchen Jiang, David C. Parkes, Tonghan Wang
arXiv:2502.08792v4 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: Machine learning can help sellers predict buyers' willingness to pay, but its predictions may be plausible and yet entirely unrelated to a bu...
By Ilan Lobel, Humberto Moreira, Omar Mouchtaki
The paper introduces LLM‑Auction, a learning‑based generative auction mechanism that integrates ad allocation with large language model (LLM) generation. It redefines the auction object from discrete ad slots to distributions over LLM outputs, aligning allocation with advertiser value and user experience while inherently modeling allocation externalities without extra inference cost. The authors prove allocation monotonicity and continuity, show a first‑price payment rule has favorable incentive properties, and demonstrate state‑of‑the‑art allocation efficiency in a simulated LLM‑as‑a‑judge environment.
By Chujie Zhao, Qun Hu, Shiping Song, Dagui Chen, Han Zhu, Jian Xu, Bo Zheng
arXiv:2512. 22749v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: We study the pricing behavior of third-party platforms facing strategic agents.
By Rui Ai, David Simchi-Levi, Feng Zhu
The paper presents a reinforcement learning framework for training autonomous large language model agents to act as sellers in multi-product bargaining markets. It models the problem as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process and introduces a structured message protocol to map natural language into a regulated decision space. Using Reinforcement Learning from Verifiable Rewards, the trained agents match limited inventory to buyers more effectively, achieving seller surplus extraction and allocation quality comparable to or better than trillion‑parameter models, and generalize to unseen market conditions.
By Shuze Daniel Liu, Claire Chen, Jiuqi Wang, David Simchi-Levi, Thorsten Joachims
Online resource allocation faces two coupled challenges: (1) allocating scarce resources efficiently under uncertain future demand, and (2) ensuring that agents report task valuations and requirements...
arXiv:2607. 05863v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Negotiation is a fundamental strategic interaction in management science, characterized by agents attempting to reach agreements while protecting private information, such as reservation costs and hidden valuations.
By Shuze Daniel Liu, Claire Chen, Jiabao Sean Xiao, Xin Chen, David Simchi-Levi
The paper introduces the first strategyproof deep reinforcement learning mechanism for online resource allocation, combining a monotonic neural network, a generalized critical payment rule, and training via RL or imitation. This design ensures truthful reporting and individual rationality while capturing nonlinear resource interactions beyond linear models. Experiments on a four‑resource stream show the neural rule attains 97.8% of an offline welfare upper bound, outperforming linear learners and first‑come, first‑served baselines, and imitation training achieves comparable performance 89 times faster than RL.
By Fariba Dehghan, Sebastian Stein, Vahid Yazdanpanah, Stephanie Gauthier
arXiv:2606. 06830v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Data-driven pricing is increasingly prevalent in sectors such as airlines, lending, insurance, and retail.
By Adam N. Elmachtoub, Hyemi Kim, Jonathan Y. Tan