Market Design, Ad Tech and Online Display Advertising

As part of the lecture series “First-Hand Information on Economic Policy”, ZEW Mannheim, in collaboration with the Department of Economics at the University of Mannheim, invites you to a talk by Nobel Laureate Paul Milgrom on 8 October 2025, from 17:00 to 18:00. The American economist is a professor at Stanford University and, together with his colleague Robert B. Wilson, received the 2020 Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research and achievements in auction theory, as well as for improving auction mechanisms through the invention of new formats.

In his lecture “Market Design, Ad Tech and Online Display Advertising,” Milgrom provides insight into the design of markets for online advertising, which have come under scrutiny by antitrust regulators in the US, and addresses the question of how bid pooling on advertising platforms, the use of past auction results to improve future market designs, and the behavior of suppliers across platforms influence the market.

“Market design is a kind of economic engineering, utilizing laboratory research, game theory, algorithms, simulations, and more. Its challenges inspire us to rethink longstanding fundamentals of economic theory." (Paul Milgrom)

The lecture will be followed by a discussion with Achim Wambach, President of ZEW, on this topic and on issues relating to market design.

We thank the Department of Economics at the University of Mannheim for its support and cooperation in organising this event.

We would like to thank the ZEW Sponsors’ Association for supporting the event series “First-Hand Information on Economic Policy”.