IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2606.03051.html

On the sufficiency of unidirectional incentive compatibility in auctions

Author

Listed:
  • Kiho Yoon

Abstract

We study optimal auction design when the direction of bidders' deviations is restricted. We show that the optimal revenue when bidders can only underbid their true values cannot exceed the optimal revenue when bidders may freely underbid or overbid. Thus, unidirectional incentive compatibility is sufficient for full incentive compatibility for revenue maximization. We prove this equivalence through linear programming duality in a discrete model, which makes it possible to analyze the feasibility of allocation rules in multi-agent environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Kiho Yoon, 2026. "On the sufficiency of unidirectional incentive compatibility in auctions," Papers 2606.03051, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2606.03051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.03051
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexey Malakhov & Rakesh Vohra, 2009. "An optimal auction for capacity constrained bidders: a network perspective," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 39(1), pages 113-128, April.
    2. Garud Iyengar & Anuj Kumar, 2008. "Optimal procurement mechanisms for divisible goods with capacitated suppliers," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 12(2), pages 129-154, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jung, Jihyeok & Song, Chan-Oi & Lee, Deok-Joo & Yoon, Kiho, 2024. "Optimal energy procurement with long-term photovoltaic energy contracts considering generation uncertainty: A two-dimensional auction approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    2. Kiho Yoon, 2026. "Demand reduction and initial endowments in consignment auctions," Papers 2607.03648, arXiv.org.
    3. Mierendorff, Konrad, 2016. "Optimal dynamic mechanism design with deadlines," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 190-222.
    4. Serin, Yasemin, 2012. "A geometric representation of profits in a supply chain network," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 36-44.
    5. Maria-Florina Balcan & Siddharth Prasad & Tuomas Sandholm, 2023. "Bicriteria Multidimensional Mechanism Design with Side Information," Papers 2302.14234, arXiv.org, revised May 2026.
    6. Xu, Jiayan & Feng, Yinbo & He, Wen, 2017. "Procurement auctions with ex post cooperation between capacity constrained bidders," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 260(3), pages 1164-1174.
    7. Bikhchandani, Sushil & Mishra, Debasis, 2022. "Selling two identical objects," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    8. Jifeng Cao & Cheng Ma, 2022. "Procurement Strategies and Auction Mechanism for Heterogeneous Service Providers in a Service Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-36, July.
    9. Ali Ekici & Baṣak Altan & Okan Örsan Özener, 2016. "Pricing decisions in a strategic single retailer/dual suppliers setting under order size constraints," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(7), pages 1887-1898, April.
    10. Krähmer, Daniel & Strausz, Roland, 2025. "Unidirectional incentive compatibility," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    11. , & , & ,, 2011. "Revenue maximization in the dynamic knapsack problem," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 6(2), May.
    12. Jihyeok Jung & Chan-Oi Song & Deok-Joo Lee & Kiho Yoon, 2024. "Optimal Mechanism in a Dynamic Stochastic Knapsack Environment," Papers 2402.14269, arXiv.org.
    13. Jiangtao Li & Piotr Dworczak, 2020. "Are simple mechanisms optimal when agents are unsophisticated?," GRAPE Working Papers 42, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    14. Lu, Qihui & Chen, Xiangfeng, 2018. "Capacity expansion investment of supplier under make-to-order and make-to-stock supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 133-148.
    15. Chen, Ning & Ghosh, Arpita & Lambert, Nicolas S., 2014. "Auctions for social lending: A theoretical analysis," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 367-391.
    16. , & ,, 2013. "Implementation in multidimensional dichotomous domains," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(2), May.
    17. Sumit Joshi & Poorvi Vora, 2013. "Weak and strong multimarket bidding rings," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 53(3), pages 657-696, August.
    18. Abdullah Dasci & Kemal Guler, 2019. "Dynamic Strategic Procurement from Capacitated Suppliers," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(4), pages 990-1009, April.
    19. Chaturvedi, Aadhaar, 2015. "Procurement auctions with capacity constrained suppliers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 247(3), pages 987-995.
    20. Sijing Deng & Jiayan Xu, 2020. "Ex ante and Ex post Subcontracting between Two Competing Bidders," Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research (APJOR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 37(01), pages 1-22, January.

    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:2606.03051. 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: https://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.