NoteAsking questions

- A seller is selling a good to two potential buyers.
- Each buyer is asked a binary question about their valuation in one of finitely many periods.
- We characterize welfare maximizing protocols.
- In a welfare maximizing protocol, the seller questions one buyer in all the periods but the last.

We examine a model of limited communication in which the seller is selling a single good to two potential buyers. In each of the finite number of periods the seller asks one of the two buyers a binary question. After the final answer, the allocation and the transfers are executed. The model sheds light on the communication protocols that arise in welfare maximizing mechanisms.