NeTS: Large: Networked Markets: Theory and Applications

从互联网到电网，再到银行之间的互联，网络是当今世界的一个普遍特征。 它们的普遍存在对现代市场产生了根本性的影响。 在信息技术进步的推动下，现代市场正变得更加动态、复杂和相互关联。过去的市场发展缓慢，管理贸易的机构简单，寻找“正确的”贸易伙伴是一项艰巨的挑战;而今天的新兴市场通常是复杂的平台，有一系列动态机制促进参与者之间的匹配。这使得对市场的设计和运作的控制达到了前所未有的水平，这导致市场成为网络系统越来越重要的组成部分，例如，云计算市场中的动态真实的时间定价和金融市场中的自动化交易。 市场的变化也从根本上影响了信息技术，特别是在网络系统的背景下-越来越多的情况是，过去纯粹是“工程”的网络系统现在正由市场和工程的混合物来管理，例如，电力市场通过不同时间尺度（提前一天、实时等）的多个市场的组合来管理。和快速时标控制系统，以确保稳定性。 因此，网络和市场在今天比以往任何时候都更加紧密地联系在一起，因此有必要将它们作为一个统一的整体而不是作为单独的领域来研究。特别地，将市场并入网络系统中在“工程师”和“经济学家”之间产生了不可避免的相互作用，就系统的哪些方面通过控制策略、协议等来管理而言，这些方面是通过经济工具如定价、市场设计等来管理的，以及两者如何互动。工程选择对经济效率有影响，反之亦然，这一事实使这一点更具挑战性。该基金的研究人员旨在为网络化市场的研究奠定理论基础，并将重点关注三个一般主题：（i）市场之间联系的影响，（ii）市场参与者之间联系的影响，以及（iii）了解和控制网络化市场中的传染。这些主题跨越了网络市场的许多挑战和机遇，更好地理解这些问题对于研究重点的五个目标应用中的每一个都至关重要：云计算市场，数据市场，电力市场，匹配市场（例如劳动力市场）和金融市场。 特别是，在这个补助金的研究成果将提供新的见解网络化市场的运作，可以为市场运营商/设计师和市场参与者提供利益。该研究是高度跨学科的，连接计算机科学和经济学，并侧重于从工程和社会系统的不同领域的应用。 作为赠款的一部分，研究人员正在加州理工学院启动一项新的计算和数学科学博士课程，该课程的重点是培养学生在计算与科学和工程的界面上具有跨学科的跨学科兴趣。 其他外联活动包括每年举办学术界和工业界参加的讲习班。 此外，研究人员在每个应用领域的强大行业联系突出了拟议研究从学术界向实践过渡的潜力。

From the internet to the electricity grid to the interconnections of banks, networks are a pervasive feature of our world today. Their ubiquity has had a fundamental impact on modern markets. Driven by advances in information technology, modern marketplaces are becoming ever more dynamic, complex, and interconnected. While markets used to be slow to evolve, have simple institutions governing trade, and make finding the "right" trading partner a daunting challenge; markets emerging today are typically complex platforms, with a range of dynamic mechanisms for facilitating matches amongst participants. This gives an unprecedented level of control over the design and operation of markets, which has led to their incorporation as increasingly crucial components of networked systems, e.g., dynamic real time pricing in cloud computing markets and automated trading in financial markets. The changes in markets have also fundamentally impacted information technology, especially in the context of networked systems -- it is increasingly the case that networked systems that used to be purely "engineered" are now being governed by a mixture of markets and engineering, e.g., electricity markets are managed through a combination of multiple markets at different timescales (day ahead, real-time, etc.) and fast-time scale control systems to ensure stability. Thus, networks and markets are connected today more than ever, and so it is necessary to study them as a unified whole rather than as individual fields. In particular, the incorporation of markets into networked systems creates an unavoidable interaction between "the engineer" and "the economist" in terms of which aspects of the system are managed via control policies, protocols, etc., which aspects are managed via economic tools such as pricing, market design, etc., and how the two interact. This is made even more challenging by the fact that engineering choices have consequences for economic efficiency and vice versa.The researchers in this grant seeks to develop theoretical foundations for the study of networked markets, and will focus on three general themes: (i) the impact of connections between markets, (ii) the impact of connections between participants of markets, and (iii) understanding and controlling contagion in networked markets. These themes cut across many of the challenges and opportunities surrounding networked markets, and a better understanding of these issues is crucial for each of the five target applications on which the research focuses: cloud computing markets, data markets, electricity markets, matching markets (e.g. labor markets), and financial markets. In particular, the results of the research in this grant will provide new insights into the functioning of networked markets that can provide benefits for both market operators/designers and market participants.The research is highly interdisciplinary, connecting computer science and economics and focusing on applications from diverse areas in both engineered and social systems. As part of the grant, the investigators are initiating a new PhD program on Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Caltech, which focuses training students with cross-cutting interdisciplinary interests at the interface of computing with science and engineering. Additional outreach activities include yearly workshops with both academic and industrial attendance. Further, the strong industry connections of the investigators in each of the application areas highlight the potential for the proposed research to make the transition from academia to practice.