An elementary introduction to auctions

An auction designer faces many questions. Among the questions are what precisely is to be sold, who may bid, will there be multiple rounds of bidding, what kinds of payments will be made and which are biddable, how will the bids be compared, how will it be decided if a transaction occurs, how will the price be set, how will sales of multiple items be handled, and what information will be revealed and when. Different academic disciplines have contributed to answering these questions. In addition to OR/MS, these include engineering, economics, sociology, and computer science.