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Topic · Management Science and Operations Research

Auction Theory and Applications

Auction Theory and Applications is a research topic within Management Science and Operations Research. Science Explorer counts 28k research works in it since 1954. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the theory and practice of auction design, mechanism design, and procurement contracts. It covers topics such as combinatorial auctions, incentives, winner determination, reputation systems, bid rotation, and regret information in various auction settings.

  • Auction Theory
  • Mechanism Design
  • Procurement Contracts
  • Combinatorial Auctions
  • Incentives
  • Internet Auctions
  • Winner Determination
  • Reputation Systems
  • Bid Rotation
  • Regret Information
Research works
28k
fractional, since 1954
In the world top 10%
2.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-10%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
33% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Auction Theory and Applications

Which countries lead Auction Theory and Applications research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.1k and 839 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 China 839 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 228 works
  4. 4 Germany 215 works
  5. 5 India 191 works
  6. 6 France 165 works
  7. 7 Japan 144 works
  8. 8 Italy 139 works
  9. 9 Canada 131 works
  10. 10 Spain 94 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 33.0%China: 26.2%United Kingdom: 7.1%Germany: 6.7%6 others listed: 27.0%33%largest
United States1,058 · 33.0%China839 · 26.2%United Kingdom228 · 7.1%Germany215 · 6.7%6 others listed864 · 27.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Auction Theory and Applications research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Auction Theory and Applications research, followed by Columbia University and Stanford University.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 45 works
  2. 2 Columbia UniversityUnited States 36 works
  3. 3 Stanford UniversityUnited States 34 works
  4. 4 Cornell UniversityUnited States 31 works
  5. 5 University of TorontoCanada 24 works
  6. 6 National University of SingaporeSingapore 24 works
  7. 7 Alphabet (United States)United States 23 works
  8. 8 Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 22 works
  9. 9 Tsinghua UniversityChina 22 works
  10. 10 University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUnited States 21 works

Who are the leading researchers in Auction Theory and Applications?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Auction Theory and Applications include Andrei Shleifer, Kai You Wang and David F. Larcker.

  1. 1 Andrei Shleifer United States 234k citations
  2. 2 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  3. 3 David F. Larcker United States 197k citations
  4. 4 Jürgen Schmidhuber Switzerland 188k citations
  5. 5 Qiang Zhang China 184k citations
  6. 6 Michael I. Jordan United States 182k citations
  7. 7 Kathleen M. Eisenhardt United States 169k citations
  8. 8 Joseph E. Stiglitz United States 167k citations
  9. 9 H. Vincent Poor United States 165k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Auction Theory and Applications?

The most cited paper in Auction Theory and Applications is "A Decision-Theoretic Generalization of On-Line Learning and an Application to Boosting" (Yoav Freund, Robert E. Schapire, 1997), with 20,713 citations. Next come "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration" (9,650) and "Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review" (9,404).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Decision-Theoretic Generalization of On-Line Learning and an Application to Boosting Yoav Freund, Robert E. Schapire · Journal of Computer and System Sciences Open access Aug 1997 20,713
2 The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration Sanford J. Grossman, Oliver Hart · Journal of Political Economy Open access Aug 1986 9,650
3 Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review Kathleen M. Eisenhardt · Academy of Management Review 1989 9,404
4 Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events W. Brian Arthur · The Economic Journal Mar 1989 7,491
5 Multitask Principal–Agent Analyses: Incentive Contracts, Asset Ownership, and Job Design Bengt R. Holmstrom, Paul Milgrom · The Journal of Law Economics and Organization 1991 6,236
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Auction Theory and Applications research done?

The largest centres of Auction Theory and Applications research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), London (United Kingdom) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Ithaca and Tel Aviv.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 157 works
  2. 2 ShanghaiChina 96 works
  3. 3 LondonUnited Kingdom 69 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 69 works
  5. 5 TokyoJapan 68 works
  6. 6 Hong KongChina 59 works
  7. 7 SingaporeSingapore 56 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 54 works
  9. 9 NanjingChina 53 works
  10. 10 ShenzhenChina 40 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. IthacaUS · 30.7 works7.1×
  2. Tel AvivIL · 20.4 works6.5×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Auction Theory and Applications than the world average.

See Auction Theory and Applications on the map

Where is the best place to study Auction Theory and Applications?

Among universities, judged by research, Columbia University, Cornell University and University of Chicago score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 17.48%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of ChicagoMassachusetts Instit…Columbia UniversityCornell University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Columbia UniversityUnited States 78.818.4%9.0×36 +8.7%
2Cornell UniversityUnited States 74.217.7%6.5×31 +15.3%
3University of ChicagoUnited States 69.020.0%6.0×18 -5.4%
4Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States 66.718.7%8.7×22 -18.9%
5ETH ZurichSwitzerland 66.122.0%6.5×16 +11.6%
6Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 65.118.6%4.5×14 +15.8%
7Stanford UniversityUnited States 65.09.1%6.4×34 -29.3%
8University of Hong KongChina 61.514.5%5.2×18 -0.1%
9Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 58.121.6%5.0×14 -12.5%
10Hong Kong University of Science and TechnologyChina 57.914.2%9.4×14 -36.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Auction Theory and Applications, country by country

Is Auction Theory and Applications research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 10% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2011.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Auction Theory and Applications as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.017% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Auction Theory and Applications0.015% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Auction Theory and Applications over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Auction Theory and Applications10.5% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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