We consider auction environments in which bidders must incur a cost to learn their valuations and study the optimal selling mechanisms in such environments. These mechanisms specify for each period, as a function of the bids in previous periods, which new potential buyers should be asked to bid....

We study the design of profit maximizing single unit auctions under the assumption that the seller needs to incur costs to contact prospective bidders and inform them about the auction. With independent bidders’ types and possibly interdependent valuations, the seller’s problem can be...

This article discusses the tools economic theory provides for examining the implications of vertical separation in network industries. It argues that advocating vertical separation in all cases is too simplistic an answer. However, the economic profession has provided little guidance that would...

This is the submission which we made to the United Kingdom Cabinet Office Open Standards Consultation. The aim of this submission is not to present new research findings, but to show what we believe are the policy consequences of recent progress in the understanding of the economics of Open...

The nonparametric estimation of a regression function x from conditional moment restrictions involving instrumental variables is considered. The rate of convergence of penalized estimators is studied in the case where x is not identified from the conditional moment restriction. We also study the...

A central result in the theory of integer optimization states that a system of linear diophantine equations Ax = b has no integral solution if and only if there exists a vector in the dual lattice, y T A integral such that y T b is fractional. We extend this result to systems that both have...

This paper shows that cycling of the simplex method for the m×n Transportation Problem where k-1 zero basic variables are leaving and reentering the basis does not occur once it does not occur in the k×k Assignment Problem. A method to disprove cycling for a particular k is applied for...