IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2301.07660.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A duality and free boundary approach to adverse selection

Author

Listed:
  • Robert J. McCann
  • Kelvin Shuangjian Zhang

Abstract

Adverse selection is a version of the principal-agent problem that includes monopolist nonlinear pricing, where a monopolist with known costs seeks a profit-maximizing price menu facing a population of potential consumers whose preferences are known only in the aggregate. For multidimensional spaces of agents and products, Rochet and Chon\'e (1998) reformulated this problem to a concave maximization over the set of convex functions, by assuming agent preferences combine bilinearity in the product and agent parameters with a quasilinear sensitivity to prices. We characterize solutions to this problem by identifying a dual minimization problem. This duality allows us to reduce the solution of the square example of Rochet-Chon\'e to a novel free boundary problem, giving the first analytical description of an overlooked market segment.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert J. McCann & Kelvin Shuangjian Zhang, 2023. "A duality and free boundary approach to adverse selection," Papers 2301.07660, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2301.07660
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.07660
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mussa, Michael & Rosen, Sherwin, 1978. "Monopoly and product quality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 301-317, August.
    2. Andreas Kleiner & Alejandro Manelli, 2019. "Strong Duality in Monopoly Pricing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1391-1396, July.
    3. Roger B. Myerson, 1981. "Optimal Auction Design," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(1), pages 58-73, February.
    4. Constantinos Daskalakis & Alan Deckelbaum & Christos Tzamos, 2017. "Strong Duality for a Multiple‐Good Monopolist," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 735-767, May.
    5. Figalli, Alessio & Kim, Young-Heon & McCann, Robert J., 2011. "When is multidimensional screening a convex program?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(2), pages 454-478, March.
    6. Armstrong, Mark, 1996. "Multiproduct Nonlinear Pricing," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(1), pages 51-75, January.
    7. J. A. Mirrlees, 1971. "An Exploration in the Theory of Optimum Income Taxation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 38(2), pages 175-208.
    8. Jean-Charles Rochet & Philippe Chone, 1998. "Ironing, Sweeping, and Multidimensional Screening," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 783-826, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Federico Echenique & Joseph Root & Fedor Sandomirskiy, 2024. "Stable matching as transport," Papers 2402.13378, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2025.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kelvin Shuangjian Zhang, 2019. "Existence in multidimensional screening with general nonlinear preferences," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 67(2), pages 463-485, March.
    2. Kelvin Shuangjian Zhang, 2017. "Existence in Multidimensional Screening with General Nonlinear Preferences," Papers 1710.08549, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2018.
    3. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Mishra, Debasis, 2022. "Selling two identical objects," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    4. Pascal Courty & Li Hao, 2000. "Sequential Screening," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 67(4), pages 697-717.
    5. Mark Armstrong, 2016. "Nonlinear Pricing," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 583-614, October.
    6. Pass, Brendan, 2012. "Convexity and multi-dimensional screening for spaces with different dimensions," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(6), pages 2399-2418.
    7. X. Ruiz del Portal, 2012. "Conditions for incentive compatibility in models with multidimensional allocation functions and one-dimensional types," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 16(4), pages 311-321, December.
    8. Jakša Cvitanić & Julien Hugonnier, 2022. "Optimal fund menus," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 455-516, April.
    9. Alexey Kushnir & James Michelson, 2022. "Optimal Multi-Dimensional Auctions: Conjectures and Simulations," Papers 2207.01664, arXiv.org.
    10. Carlier, Guillaume & Dupuis, Xavier & Rochet, Jean-Charles & Thanassoulis, John, 2024. "A general solution to the quasi linear screening problem," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    11. Frank Yang, 2022. "The Simple Economics of Optimal Bundling," Papers 2212.12623, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.
    12. Rochet, Jean-Charles, 2024. "Multidimensional screening after 37 years," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    13. Yossi Spiegel & Simon Wilkie, 2000. "Optimal Multiproduct Nonlinear Pricing with Correlated Consumer Types," Discussion Papers 1299, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    14. Uwe Dulleck & Rudolf Kerschbamer & Alexander Konovalov, 2024. "Too Much or Too Little? Price Discrimination in a Market for Credence Goods," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 180(1), pages 106-143.
    15. Carlier, Guillaume & Zhang, Kelvin Shuangjian, 2020. "Existence of solutions to principal–agent problems with adverse selection under minimal assumptions," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 64-71.
    16. Christian Moser & Pedro Olea de Souza e Silva, 2019. "Optimal Paternalistic Savings Policies," Opportunity and Inclusive Growth Institute Working Papers 17, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    17. William Dodds, 2024. "Solving multidimensional screening problems using a generalized single crossing property," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 77(4), pages 1025-1084, June.
    18. Seung Han Yoo, 2018. "Membership Mechanisms," Discussion Paper Series 1804, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
    19. Frank Yang, 2021. "Costly Multidimensional Screening," Papers 2109.00487, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    20. Alexander V. Kolesnikov & Fedor Sandomirskiy & Aleh Tsyvinski & Alexander P. Zimin, 2022. "Beckmann's approach to multi-item multi-bidder auctions," Papers 2203.06837, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2301.07660. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.