Analysis of Ausubel auctions by means of evolutionary computation

The increasing use of auctions has led to a growing interest in the subject. A recent method used for carrying out examinations on auctions has been the design of computational simulations. The aim of this paper is to develop a genetic algorithm to find bidders' optimal strategies for a specific dynamic multi-unit auction. The algorithm provides the bidding strategy (defined as the action to be taken under different auction conditions) that maximizes the bidder's payoff. The algorithm is tested under several experimental environments, number of bidders and quantity of lots auctioned. The results suggest that the approach leads to strategies that outperform canonical strategies.