Three essays on the interface of computer science, economics and information systems

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorWhinston, Andrew B.en
dc.creatorHidvégi, Zoltán Tibor, 1970-en
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-28T23:36:39Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:18:03Z
dc.date.available2008-08-28T23:36:39Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:18:03Z
dc.date.issued2007en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThis thesis looks at three aspects related to the design of E-commerce systems, online auctions and distributed grid computing systems. We show how formal verification techniques from computer science can be applied to ensure correctness of system design and implementation at the code level. Through e-ticket sales example, we demonstrate that model checking can locate subtle but critical flaws that traditional control and auditing methods (e.g., penetration testing, analytical procedure) most likely miss. Auditors should understand formal verification methods, enforce engineering to use them to create designs with less of a chance of failure, and even practice formal verification themselves in order to offer credible control and assistance for critical e-systems. Next, we study why many online auctions offer fixed buy prices to understand why sellers and auctioneers voluntarily limit the surplus they can get from an auction. We show when either the seller of the dibbers are risk-averse, a properly chosen fixed permanent buy-price can increase the social surplus and does not decrease the expected utility of the sellers and bidders, and we characterize the unique equilibrium strategies of uniformly risk-averse buyers in a buy-price auction. In the final chapter we look at the design of a distributed grid-computing system. We show how code-instrumentation can be used to generate a witness of program execution, and show how this witness can be used to audit the work of self-interested grid agents. Using a trusted intermediary between grid providers and customers, the audit allows payment to be contingent on the successful audit results, and it creates a verified reputation history of grid providers. We show that enabling the free trade of reputations provides economic incentives to agents to perform the computations assigned, and it induces increasing effort levels as the agents' reputation increases. We show that in such a reputation market only high-type agents would have incentive to purchase a high reputation, and only low-type agents would use low reputations, thus a market works as a natural signaling mechanism about the agents' type.en
dc.description.departmentInformation, Risk, and Operations Management (IROM)en
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifierb68890217en
dc.identifier.oclc174114834en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/3249en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subject.lcshElectronic commerceen
dc.subject.lcshInternet auctions--Mathematical modelsen
dc.subject.lcshPrices--Mathematical modelsen
dc.subject.lcshComputer software--Verificationen
dc.subject.lcshComputer programs--Verificationen
dc.subject.lcshCoding theoryen
dc.subject.lcshComputational grids (Computer systems)en
dc.titleThree essays on the interface of computer science, economics and information systemsen
dc.type.genreThesisen

Files

Collections

University of Texas at Austin