Authors
Paul Dutting, Michal Feldman, Thomas Kesselheim, Brendan Lucier
Publication date
2020
Journal
SIAM Journal on Computing
Volume
49
Issue
3
Pages
540-582
Publisher
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
Description
We present a general framework for stochastic online maximization problems with combinatorial feasibility constraints. The framework establishes prophet inequalities by constructing price-based online approximation algorithms, a natural extension of threshold algorithms for settings beyond binary selection. Our analysis takes the form of an extension theorem: we derive sufficient conditions on prices when all weights are known in advance, then prove that the resulting approximation guarantees extend directly to stochastic settings. Our framework unifies and simplifies much of the existing literature on prophet inequalities and posted price mechanisms and is used to derive new and improved results for combinatorial markets (with and without complements), multidimensional matroids, and sparse packing problems. Finally, we highlight a surprising connection between the smoothness framework for bounding the …
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