Microtheory Seminar Series. "Implementing Walrasian Equilibrium---the Language of Product-Mix Auctions"
Published: 6 May 2025
27 May 2025. Dr Elizabeth Baldwin, University of Oxford
Dr Elizabeth Baldwin, Department of Economics, University of Oxford
"Implementing Walrasian Equilibrium---the Language of Product-Mix Auctions"
Tuesday, 27 May 2025. 16:00-17:30
Room 141A, Adam Smith Business School
Abstract
Product-mix auctions are sealed-bid mechanisms for trading multiple divisible or indivisible units of multiple differentiated goods. They implement competitive-equilibrium allocations when these exist, based on the bids that participants make in a simple geometric language. All concave substitutes (respectively, strong-substitutes) valuations can be uniquely represented, and no other valuations can be represented, by bids in the corresponding version of this language. This provides new characterisations of ordinary substitutes, and of strong substitutes, when goods are indivisible. We discuss implementation of the auctions, and extensions and variants of the language, e.g., allowing for budget constraints.
Bio
Elizabeth is an Associate Professor at Oxford University, specialising in auctions in theory and practice. The theory has incorporated re-visiting consumer theory for indivisible goods and developing results on existence of competitive equilibrium with indivisibilities, as well as presentation of preferences for substitutes in a bidding language. The practice has included advising the Bank of England, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
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First published: 6 May 2025
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