Specifying Rules for Electronic Auctions

We examine the design space of auction mechanisms and identify three core activities that structure this space. Formal parameters qualifying the performance of core activities enable precise specification of auction rules. This specification constitutes an auction description language that can be used in the implementation of configurable marketplaces. The specification also provides a framework for organizing previous work and identifying new possibilities in auction design. Given that many multiagent systems involve the allocation of resources, it is natural that the connection between AI and economics has become a common theme in AI. This emphasis is also certainly influenced by the automation of commercial activities on the internet and the potential benefits of intelligent software support for these economic activities. Auctions are central to this confluence of research agendas because they represent a class of basic mechanisms by which economic systems compute the outcome of ...