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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.16

Smoothed and Average-Case Approximation Ratios of Mechanisms: Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis

Authors: Xiaotie Deng, Yansong Gao, and Jie Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 83, 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)

Abstract

The approximation ratio has become one of the dominant measures in mechanism design problems. In light of analysis of algorithms, we define the smoothed approximation ratio to compare the performance of the optimal mechanism and a truthful mechanism when the inputs are subject to random perturbations of the worst-case inputs, and define the average-case approximation ratio to compare the performance of these two mechanisms when the inputs follow a distribution. For the one-sided matching problem, Filos-Ratsikas et al. [2014] show that, amongst all truthful mechanisms, random priority achieves the tight approximation ratio bound of Theta(sqrt{n}). We prove that, despite of this worst-case bound, random priority has a constant smoothed approximation ratio. This is, to our limited knowledge, the first work that asymptotically differentiates the smoothed approximation ratio from the worst-case approximation ratio for mechanism design problems. For the average-case, we show that our approximation ratio can be improved to 1+e. These results partially explain why random priority has been successfully used in practice, although in the worst case the optimal social welfare is Theta(sqrt{n}) times of what random priority achieves. These results also pave the way for further studies of smoothed and average-case analysis for approximate mechanism design problems, beyond the worst-case analysis.

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Xiaotie Deng, Yansong Gao, and Jie Zhang. Smoothed and Average-Case Approximation Ratios of Mechanisms: Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis. In 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 83, pp. 16:1-16:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{deng_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.16,
  author =	{Deng, Xiaotie and Gao, Yansong and Zhang, Jie},
  title =	{{Smoothed and Average-Case Approximation Ratios of Mechanisms: Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-046-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{83},
  editor =	{Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean-Francois},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-80936},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: mechanism design, approximation ratio, smoothed analysis, average-case analysis}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2016.23

Understanding PPA-Completeness

Authors: Xiaotie Deng, Jack R. Edmonds, Zhe Feng, Zhengyang Liu, Qi Qi, and Zeying Xu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 50, 31st Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC 2016)

Abstract

We consider the problem of finding a fully colored base triangle on the 2-dimensional Möbius band under the standard boundary condition, proving it to be PPA-complete. The proof is based on a construction for the DPZP problem, that of finding a zero point under a discrete version of continuity condition. It further derives PPA-completeness for versions on the Möbius band of other related discrete fixed point type problems, and a special version of the Tucker problem, finding an edge such that if the value of one end vertex is x, the other is -x, given a special anti-symmetry boundary condition. More generally, this applies to other non-orientable spaces, including the projective plane and the Klein bottle. However, since those models have a closed boundary, we rely on a version of the PPA that states it as to find another fixed point giving a fixed point. This model also makes it presentationally simple for an extension to a high dimensional discrete fixed point problem on a non-orientable (nearly) hyper-grid with a constant side length.

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Xiaotie Deng, Jack R. Edmonds, Zhe Feng, Zhengyang Liu, Qi Qi, and Zeying Xu. Understanding PPA-Completeness. In 31st Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC 2016). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 50, pp. 23:1-23:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

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@InProceedings{deng_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2016.23,
  author =	{Deng, Xiaotie and Edmonds, Jack R. and Feng, Zhe and Liu, Zhengyang and Qi, Qi and Xu, Zeying},
  title =	{{Understanding PPA-Completeness}},
  booktitle =	{31st Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC 2016)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-008-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{50},
  editor =	{Raz, Ran},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2016.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-58310},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2016.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fixed Point Computation, PPA-Completeness}
}

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Smoothed and Average-Case Approximation Ratios of Mechanisms: Beyond the Worst-Case Analysis

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Understanding PPA-Completeness

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