Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10321571 | Electronic Commerce Research and Applications | 2005 | 16 Pages |
Abstract
We model the trade balance problem as a minimum cost circulation problem (MCC) on a network. When the products have uniform cost or when the products can be traded in fractional units, we solve the problem exactly. Otherwise, we present a novel stochastic rounding algorithm that takes the fractional optimal solution to the trade balance problem and produces a valid integer solution. We then make use of a greedy heuristic that attempts to match buyers and sellers so that the average number of suppliers that a buyer must use to satisfy a given product need is minimized. We present results of empirical evaluation of our algorithms on test problems and on simulations built using data from an operating trade exchange.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Computer Science
Artificial Intelligence
Authors
Peter Haddawy, Christine Cheng, Namthip Rujikeadkumjorn, Khaimook Dhananaiyapergse,