TY - GEN
T1 - Mechanism design on discrete lines and cycles
AU - Dokow, Elad
AU - Feldman, Michal
AU - Meir, Reshef
AU - Nehama, Ilan
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - We study strategyproof (SP) mechanisms for the location of a facility on a discrete graph. We give a full characterization of SP mechanisms on lines and on sufficiently large cycles. Interestingly, the characterization deviates from the one given by Schummer and Vohra (2004) for the continuous case. In particular, it is shown that an SP mechanism on a cycle is close to dictatorial, but all agents can affect the outcome, in contrast to the continuous case. Our characterization is also used to derive a lower bound on the approximation ratio with respect to the social cost that can be achieved by an SP mechanism on certain graphs. Finally, we show how the representation of such graphs as subsets of the binary cube reveals common properties of SP mechanisms and enables one to extend the lower bound to related domains.
AB - We study strategyproof (SP) mechanisms for the location of a facility on a discrete graph. We give a full characterization of SP mechanisms on lines and on sufficiently large cycles. Interestingly, the characterization deviates from the one given by Schummer and Vohra (2004) for the continuous case. In particular, it is shown that an SP mechanism on a cycle is close to dictatorial, but all agents can affect the outcome, in contrast to the continuous case. Our characterization is also used to derive a lower bound on the approximation ratio with respect to the social cost that can be achieved by an SP mechanism on certain graphs. Finally, we show how the representation of such graphs as subsets of the binary cube reveals common properties of SP mechanisms and enables one to extend the lower bound to related domains.
KW - facility location
KW - graphs
KW - mechanism design
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863522285&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2229012.2229045
DO - 10.1145/2229012.2229045
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84863522285
SN - 9781450314152
T3 - Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce
SP - 423
EP - 440
BT - EC '12 - Proceedings of the 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce
T2 - 13th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, EC '12
Y2 - 4 June 2012 through 8 June 2012
ER -