Abstract:
A remarkable relation between auction theory (the case of one bidder) and optimal transportation was discovered in the seminal paper Daskalakis-Deckelbaum-Tzamos, Strong Duality for a Multiple-Good Monopolist, Econometrica (2017). We will talk about recent developments of this theory for the case of multiple bidders. In particular, we discuss duality, numerical results and relation to other problems from economy, such as Beckmann's continuous transportation and monopolist problems. The talk is partially based on our recent work with Aleh Tsyvinski, Fedor Sandomirskiy and Alexander Zimin.