@inproceedings{15b7c9ae2c684d1aa128a1b648f58170,
title = "Why prices need algorithms",
abstract = "Understanding when equilibria are guaranteed to exist is a central theme in economic theory, seemingly unrelated to computation. This paper shows that the existence of pricing equilibria is inextricably connected to the computational complexity of related optimization problems: demand oracles, revenue-maximization, and welfare-maximization. This relationship implies, under suitable complexity assumptions, a host of impossibility results. We also suggest a complexity-theoretic explanation for the lack of useful extensions of the Walrasian equilibrium concept: such extensions seem to require the invention of novel polynomial-time algorithms for welfare-maximization.",
keywords = "Complexity, Computational game theory, Equilibrium computation, Market design, Market equilibrium",
author = "Tim Roughgarden and Inbal Talgam-Cohen",
year = "2015",
month = jun,
day = "15",
doi = "10.1145/2764468.2764515",
language = "الإنجليزيّة",
series = "EC 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation",
pages = "19--36",
booktitle = "EC 2015 - Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Economics and Computation",
note = "16th ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, EC 2015 ; Conference date: 15-06-2015 Through 19-06-2015",
}