SFB 303 Discussion Paper No. A - 590
Author: Schweizer, U.
Title: Robust Possibility and Impossibility Results
Abstract: In a general setting of private information, the possibility (impossibility) theorem
is said to be valid, if a balanced and ex post efficient mechanism exists (does not exist)
which agents voluntarily participate at. Possibility and impossibility results are called
robust if they hold for all priors with independently distributed private information. The
following papers, among others, implicitely contain such results: Myerson and
Satterthwaite (1983), Gth and Hellwig (1986), Cramton, Gibbons and Klemperer
(1987), McAfee (1991), Makowski and Mezzetti (1993), Williams (1994) and Schmitz
(1998). The present paper introduces a criterion which does not depend on the prior
distribution of information. This criterion allows, not only, to simplify drastically earlier
proofs, but also to generalize the existing results in a substantial way.
Keywords: Impossibility theorems, possibility theorems, Bayesian implementation under
voluntary participation
JEL-Classification-Number: D82
Creation-Date: First version: December 1998
URL: ../1998/a/bonnsfa590.pdf
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