Discussion paper
DP19820 Ordinal Simplicity in Discrete Mechanism Design
Designing mechanisms for environments without transfers, market designers usually restrict attention to ordinal mechanisms. Ordinal mechanisms are simpler for both designers and participants but miss potentially welfare-relevant information. Under what conditions focusing on ordinal mechanisms is without loss? We show that all group strategy-proof mechanisms are ordinal. While not all Pareto efficient mechanisms are ordinal, all mechanisms maximizing an Arrovian social welfare function are. As applications, we characterize important classes of mechanisms in public choice as well as single-unit-demand and multiple-unit-demand allocation of private goods.
£6.00
