Algorithms for Electronic Markets

Professors Orestis Telelis
Course category OPT/CIS
Course ID DS-534
Credits 5
Lecture hours 3 hours
Lab hours 2 hours
Digital resources View on Aristarchus (Open e-Class)

Learning Outcomes

The course’s material includes the theory and practice that pertain to the design of economic mechanisms for automated trade exchanges, in modern digital platforms (auction websites, services provision and products retail websites, internet advertisement platforms). In particular, the course concerns the modern algorithmic techniques that facilitate the digital implementation of electronic markets.

Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be in position:

  • to understand the economic and algorithmic background that underlies the functionality of electronic markets.
  • to design electronic trade exchanges platforms, by choosing the appropriate economic mechanisms and the relevant algorithmic implementations.
  • to assess and evaluate the performance of economic mechanisms and their algorithmic implementations, relative to a given electronic market and its particulars.
  • to design, implement and evaluate automated pricing mechanisms.

Course Contents

  • Introduction to Game Theory: Strategies, Utility Functions
  • Strategic Games and Nash Equilibrium
  • Efficiency of Equilibria
  • Oligopoly Models
  • Auctions: First-Price, Second-Price, Multi-Unit Formats
  • Algorithmic Mechanism Design
  •  Sponsored Search Auctions
  • Combinatorial Auctions
  • Principles and Methods of Pricing
  • Prediction Techniques
  • Online Auctions

Recommended Readings

  • N. Nisan, T. Roughgarden, E. Tardos, V. Vazirani. Algorithmic Game Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  • T. Roughgarden. Twenty Lectures on Algorithmic Game Theory. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
  • M. J. Osborne. An Introduction to Game Theory. Oxford University Press, 2009.
  • R. Gibbons. A Primer in Game Theory. Financial Times / Prentice Hall, 1992.