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Non-separable, Quasiconcave Utilities are Easy – in a Perfect Price Discrimination Market Model (Extended Abstract)

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Internet and Network Economics (WINE 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 6484))

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Abstract

Recent results, establishing evidence of intractability for such restrictive utility functions as additively separable, piecewise-linear and concave, under both Fisher and Arrow-Debreu market models, have prompted the question of whether we have failed to capture some essential elements of real markets, which seem to do a good job of finding prices that maintain parity between supply and demand.

The main point of this paper is to show that even non-separable, quasiconcave utility functions can be handled efficiently in a suitably chosen, though natural, realistic and useful, market model; our model allows for perfect price discrimination. Our model supports unique equilibrium prices and, for the restriction to concave utilities, satisfies both welfare theorems.

Research supported by NSF Grants CCF-0728640 and CCF-0914732, ONR Grant N000140910755, and a Google Research Grant.

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Vazirani, V.V. (2010). Non-separable, Quasiconcave Utilities are Easy – in a Perfect Price Discrimination Market Model (Extended Abstract). In: Saberi, A. (eds) Internet and Network Economics. WINE 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6484. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17572-5_51

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17572-5_51

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-17571-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-17572-5

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