DIMACS Workshop on Information Markets, NJ Feb 2-4 2005

[Linda Casals]

Announcement and Call For Participation

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DIMACS Workshop on Information Markets

      February 2-4, 2005
      DIMACS Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ

      http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Markets/

Organizers:

      Robin Hanson, George Mason University, rhanson -AA at TT- gmu.edu
      John Ledyard, California Institute of Technology, jledyard -AA at TT-
hss.caltech.edu
      David Pennock, Yahoo! Research Labs, pennockd -AA at TT- yahoo-inc.com

Presented under the auspices of the Special Focus on Computation and
the Socio-Economic Sciences

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A market designed for information gathering and forecasting is called
an information market. Information markets can be used to elicit a
collective estimate of the expected value or probability of a random
variable, reflecting information dispersed across a population of
traders. The degree to which market forecasts approach optimality in
practice, or at least surpass other known methods of forecasting, is
remarkable. Supporting evidence can be found in empirical studies of
options markets, commodity futures markets, political stock markets,
sports betting markets, horse racing markets, market games, laboratory
investigations of experimental markets, and field tests. In nearly all
these cases, market prices reveal a reliable forecast about the likely
unfolding of future events, often beating expert opinions or polls.

Despite a growing theoretical and experimental literature, many
questions remain regarding how best to design, deploy, analyze, and
understand information markets, including both technical challenges
and social challenges.

This workshop will include talks on information markets by a number of
distinguished invited speakers. Speakers will cover a range of topics
including mechanism design, experiments, analysis, policy, and
industry experience. Speakers will include representatives from
academia, industry, and government. The workshop will feature research
talks, opinions, reports of industry experience, and discussion of
government policy from the perspective of a number of fields,
including economics, business, finance, computer science,
gambling/gaming, and policy. See the workshop program for more
details: http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Markets/program.html

The workshop will feature a tutorial session on Wednesday afternoon
(Feb. 2, 2005) to help those new to the field get up to speed. The
workshop will include a panel discussion on the Policy Analysis Market
(a.k.a., "Terror Futures") and a "rump" session where anyone who
requests time can have the floor for five minutes to speak on any
relevant topic. To participate in the rump session, please email David
Pennock: pennockd --AA at TT- yahoo-inc.com.

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Registration Fees:

(Pre-registration deadline: January 26, 2005)

Please see website for additional registration information.

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Information on participation, registration, accomodations, and travel
can be found at:

http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/Workshops/Markets/

    **PLEASE BE SURE TO PRE-REGISTER EARLY**

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