Revenue in Truly Combinatorial Auctions and Adversarial Mechanism Design

Abstract

Little is known about generating revenue in UNRESTRICTED combinatorial auctions. (In particular, the VCG mechanism has no revenue guarantees.) In this paper we determine how much revenue can be guaranteed in such auctions. Our analysis holds both in the standard model, when all players are independent and rational, as well as in a most adversarial model, where some players may bid collusively or even totally irrationally.