Using Mechanism Design to Prevent False-Name Manipulations

Such false-name manipulations have traditionally not been considered in the theory of mechanism design. In this article, we review recent efforts to extend the theory to address this. Because some of these results are very negative, we also discuss alternative models that allow us to circumvent some of these negative results. Some of the most exciting applications of this involve making decisions based on the agents' preferences (for a more detailed discussion, see Conitzer [2010]). For example, in electronic commerce, agents can bid on items in online auctions.