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Journal of Political Economy Vol. 97 No. 3 1989

Mechanism Design with Incomplete Information: A Solution to the Implementation Problem

Thomas R. Palfrey; Sanjay Srivastava

Abstract

The main result of this paper is that the multiple equilibrium problem in mechanism design can be avoided in private-value models if agents do not use weakly dominated strategies in equilibrium. We show that in such settings, any incentive-compatible allocation rule can be made the unique equilibrium outcome to a mechanism. We derive a general necessary condition for unique implementation that implies that the positive result for private-value models applies with considerably less generality to common-value settings.

Volume
97
Issue
3
Pages
668-691
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib

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