Pricing with local interactions on agent-based electronic marketplaces

摘要

This paper investigates the optimal pricing strategies of a selling agent that is randomly matched with several heterogeneous buying agents whose reservation prices are initially unknown. The seller perceives the behaviors of the buying agents through a logistic distribution with unknown parameters. We study the optimal learning by experimentation model of the logistic distribution. We extend this framework to a dynamic pricing model in which the selling agent is randomly matched with buying agents that are able to communicate their purchase experience to other buying agents. We carry out multi-agent system simulations of this dynamic pricing decision problem and we discuss some properties of the price dynamics one can observe on such marketplaces.