Mechanism Design: A Linear Programming Approach (Econometric Society Monographs) by Rakesh V. Vohra

Econometric Society Monographs #47

by Rakesh V. Vohra

Mechanism design is an analytical framework for thinking clearly and carefully about what exactly a given institution can achieve when the information necessary to make decisions is dispersed and privately held. This analysis provides an account of the underlying mathematics of mechanism design based on linear programming. Three advantages characterize the approach. The first is arguments based on linear programming are both elementary and transparent. The second is the machinery of linear programming provides a way to unify results from disparate areas of mechanism design. The third is the technique offers the ability to solve problems that appear to be beyond solutions offered by traditional methods. No claim is made that the approach advocated should supplant traditional mathematical machinery. Rather, the approach represents an addition to the tools of the economic theorist who proposes to understand economic phenomena through the lens of mechanism design.

Genres: Economics

Paperback Bunko

First published May 1, 2011

About the author

Professor Vohra is a leading global expert in mechanism design; an innovative area of game theory that brings together economics, engineering, and computer science. His economics research in mechanism design focuses on the best ways to allocate scarce resources when the information required to make the allocation is dispersed and privately held, an increasingly common condition in present-day environments. His work has been critical to the development of game, auction, and pricing theory — for example, the keyword auctions central to online search engines — and spans such areas as operations research, market systems, and optimal pricing mechanisms.
He formerly taught at Northwestern University, where he was the John L. and Helen Kellogg Professor of Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences in the Kellogg School of Management, with additional appointments in the Department of Economics and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He taught from 1985 to 1998 in the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He earned a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1985 from the University of Maryland, an M.Sc. in operational research in 1981 from the London School of Economics and a B.Sc. (Hon.) in mathematics in 1980 from University College London.
He came to Penn as part of the Penn Integrates Knowledge program, that President Amy Gutmann established in 2005, as a University-wide initiative to recruit exceptional faculty members whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge across disciplines. His appointment is shared with the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.