Ignorance Is Bliss: Matching in Auctions with an Uninformed Seller

In many auctions, matching between the bidder and seller raises the value of the contract for both parties. However, information about the quality of the match may be incomplete. We consider the case in which each bidder observes the quality of his match with the seller but the seller does not observe the quality of his matches with the bidders. Our objective is to determine whether it is in the seller's interest to observe the matches before selecting the winner. It is shown that the seller’s value for the information may be negative: the seller’s knowledge of the matches generates an asymmetry across bidders which depresses bids. The more matching matters, the greater the penalty associated with observing the matches.Asymmetries, Auctions, Auction Theory, Bidding, Information Revelation, Matching, Signaling

The Value of Commitment in Auctions with Matching

In many auctions, a good match between the bidder and seller raises the value of the contract for both parties although information about the quality of the match may be incomplete. This paper examines the case in which the bidder is better informed about the quality of his match with the seller than the seller is. We derive the optimal mechanism for this setting and investigate whether the seller requires commitment power to implement it. It is shown that once the reserve price is set, it is optimal for the seller to do away with any matching considerations and allocate the contract on the basis of price alone. If matching is sufficiently important to the seller, the optimal mechanism may be implemented without commitment. However, if matching is not sufficiently important, the seller suffers a loss when he is unable to commit. The magnitude of this loss increases as the importance of matching decreases.Asymmetries, Auctions, Auction Theory, Bidding, Matching, Mechanism Design, Signaling

Linear Logic for Meaning Assembly

Semantic theories of natural language associate meanings with utterances by providing meanings for lexical items and rules for determining the meaning of larger units given the meanings of their parts. Meanings are often assumed to combine via function application, which works well when constituent structure trees are used to guide semantic composition. However, we believe that the functional structure of Lexical-Functional Grammar is best used to provide the syntactic information necessary for constraining derivations of meaning in a cross-linguistically uniform format. It has been difficult, however, to reconcile this approach with the combination of meanings by function application. In contrast to compositional approaches, we present a deductive approach to assembling meanings, based on reasoning with constraints, which meshes well with the unordered nature of information in the functional structure. Our use of linear logic as a `glue' for assembling meanings allows for a coherent treatment of the LFG requirements of completeness and coherence as well as of modification and quantification.Comment: 19 pages, uses lingmacros.sty, fullname.sty, tree-dvips.sty, latexsym.sty, requires the new version of Late

Performance, emissions, and physical characteristics of a rotating combustion aircraft engine, supplement A

Testing was conducted using the basic RC2-75 engine, to which several modifications were incorporated which were designed to reduce the hydrocarbon emissions and reduce the specific fuel consumption. The modifications included close-in surface gap spark plugs, increased compression ratio rotors, and provisions for utilizing either side or peripheral intake ports, or a combination of the two if required. The proposed EPA emissions requirements were met using the normal peripheral porting. The specific fuel economy demonstrated for the modified RC2-75 was 283 g/kW-hr at 75% power and 101 brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) and 272.5 g/kW-hr at 75% power and 111 BMEP. The latter would result from rating the engine for takeoff at 285 hp and 5500 rpm, instead of 6000 rpm

Karenzzeit, "Pflege-Riester", Bürgerversicherung: was hilft weiter?

Im Jahr 2009 bezogen 2,3 Millionen Menschen Leistungen der gesetzlichen Pflegeversicherung. Bis 2020 wird diese Zahl um ein Fünftel steigen und sich bis 2050 mehr als verdoppelt haben. Auf einen solchen Anstieg ist die Finanzierung der Pflegeversicherung jedoch nicht angelegt. Spätestens nach 2015 dürfte die derzeit noch vorhandene Rücklage aufgebraucht sein. Ändert sich nichts, entsteht danach eine schmerzhafte Finanzierungslücke. Will man keinen Pflegenotstand, ist eine Reform unausweichlich. In Politik und der Öffentlichkeit werden schon seit Längerem mehrere Modelle diskutiert. Auch wenn noch zu keinem genaue Details vorliegen, so lassen sich für alle Ideen und Konzepte, Gefahren und Risiken ausmachen, die sorgfältig gegeneinander abgewogen werden sollten. Das DIW Berlin analysiert hier die Stärken und Schwächen der einzelnen Modelle beziehungsweise Modellbausteine: eine komplett kapitalgedeckte Pflegeversicherung, eine das jetzige Umlageverfahren ergänzende kapitalgedeckte Pflegeversicherung und Modelle einer sogenannten Bürgerversicherung. Das DIW Berlin gibt zu bedenken, dass die Pflegeversicherung ein existenzielles Gut ist und die Finanzierung der Pflegeversorgung sich nicht für Experimente eignet. Aus versorgungs- und verteilungspolitischen Erwägungen heraus wird deswegen die Beibehaltung der Umlagefinanzierung und eine bürgerliche Form der Pflegefinanzierung mit erster Priorität empfohlen.Pflegereform, Pflegefinanzierung, Bürgerversicherung, Pflege-Riester, Kapitaldeckung, Sozialstaat