To appear in Games and Economic Behavior Auction Protocols for Decentralized Scheduling

Decentralized scheduling is the problem of allocating resources to alternative possible uses over time, where competing uses are represented by autonomous agents. Market mechanisms use prices derived through distributed bidding protocols to determine schedules. We investigate the existence of equilibrium prices for some general classes of scheduling problems, the quality of equilibrium solutions, and the behavior of an ascending auction mechanism and bidding protocol. To remedy the potential nonexistence of price equilibria due to complementarities in preference, we introduce additional markets in combinations of basic goods. Finally, we consider direct revelation mechanisms, and compare to the market-based approach. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C62, C70, D44.