{"ID":2884842,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06469","arxiv_id":"2508.06469","title":"A Geometric Analysis of Gains from Trade","abstract":"We provide a geometric proof that the random proposer mechanism is a $4$-approximation to the first-best gains from trade in bilateral exchange. We then refine this geometric analysis to recover the state-of-the-art approximation ratio of $3.15$.","short_abstract":"We provide a geometric proof that the random proposer mechanism is a $4$-approximation to the first-best gains from trade in bilateral exchange. We then refine this geometric analysis to recover the state-of-the-art approximation ratio of $3.15$.","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06469","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.06469v1","authors":"[\"Jason Hartline\",\"Kangning Wang\"]","published":"2025-08-08T17:19:36Z","proceeding":"cs.GT","tasks":"[\"cs.GT\",\"econ.TH\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}