
Chapter | Seventeen
Packages and
Positions
This chapter continues the study of auctions of multiple nonidentical objects
in a private value setting. Of course, with private values, the VCG mechanism
results in efficient allocations. This chapter explores whether, and under what
circumstances, VCG outcomes can be achieved via open ascending auctions.
We study two specific settings for which positive results are available. In
the first, there are multiple objects but these are considered to be gross substi-
tutes
1
by all bidders. As a benchmark, recall that with mutiple identical objects
with diminishing marginal values there exists an open ascending auction—the ...