Motivation
Two-sided platforms (ride hailing, delivery, freight, cloud capacity) test product changes with user-split experiments: each arriving demand unit is assigned to treatment with probability ρ and to control otherwise. Treated and control units then compete for the same supply, so the outcome of one group depends on the size of the other. This interference biases the standard estimator that compares the value earned by the two groups and rescales by ρ and 1−ρ (Blake and Coey, 2014; Johari, Li, Liskovich and Weintraub, 2022).
Bright, Delarue and Lobel (arXiv:2205.02274v4, 2024; Management Science 2025) model each matching cycle as a linear program and propose a shadow-price estimator that weights the observed demand counts by the marginal values of demand in the experiment's matching problem. This mission formalizes their finite-sample result, Theorem 6: at every market size, the shadow-price estimator is unbiased for the slope of the expected value function at the experiment state. The fluid-limit comparison with the standard estimator (Theorem 4) and the fluid limit of the matching value (Theorem 1) are the subjects of the other two missions of this series.
Setting
A matching network has one sink node uid for each of nd demand types, one source node ujs for each of ns supply types, a finite set of intermediate nodes, and arcs that leave a supply or intermediate node and enter a demand or intermediate node. Arc (u,w) has a value vu,w∈R and a capacity ku,w≥0. For a density τ>0, demand d and supply s, the matching value Φτ(d,s) is the optimal value of the linear program (2): maximize ∑vu,wxu,w subject to inflow at uid at most di, outflow at ujs at most sj, flow balance at intermediate nodes, and 0≤xu,w≤τku,w. Write Φ=Φ1 and ei for the i-th unit vector.
Rates are a control demand rate λ≥0, a treatment effect β with λ+β≥0, and a supply rate π≥0. In the partial-treatment market with treated fraction η∈[0,1], the demand counts Diτ,λ+ηβ∼Poisson((λi+ηβi)τ) and supply counts Sjτ,π∼Poisson(πjτ) are independent. The finite-sample partial-treatment value function is
Ψτ(η)=E[τ1Φτ(Dτ,λ+ηβ,Sτ,π)],
and the global treatment effect is Δτ=Ψτ(1)−Ψτ(0).
In the experiment with treatment fraction ρ∈(0,1), the platform observes independent control counts Diτ,control∼Poisson((1−ρ)λiτ), treatment counts Diτ,treatment∼Poisson(ρ(λi+βi)τ) and supply counts, and solves the matching problem at Dτ,experiment=Dτ,control+Dτ,treatment. The negative-demand subgradient is ai−=Φτ(d,s)−Φτ(d−ei,s) and the positive one ai+=Φτ(d+ei,s)−Φτ(d,s). The shadow-price estimator is
Δ^SPτ=τ1Aτ,experiment,−⋅(ρ1Dτ,treatment−1−ρ1Dτ,control),
with Aτ,experiment,− the vector a− at (Dτ,experiment,Sτ).
Formalization targets
Goal: Theorem 6 (p. 24)
For every network, all rates as above, every ρ∈(0,1) and every τ>0, Ψτ is differentiable at ρ and
E[Δ^SPτ]=Ψτ′(ρ).
Milestones
- Lemma 1 (p. 37): τ1Φτ(d,s)=Φ(τ1d,τ1s) for integer d,s, and optimal flows correspond by the factor τ.
- Theorem 7 (p. 24): with integer d,s and integer scaled capacities, Φτ(d±ε,s) is linear in ε≥0 on ∑iεi≤1, with slopes a+ and a−.
- Lemma 3 (p. 51): for D∼Poisson(λ) and g of linear growth, ∂λ∂E[g(x,D)]=E[g(x,D+1)−g(x,D)].
- Lemma 4 (p. 52): ∂λi∂E[Φ(D,S)]=E[Ai+] for Poisson demand and supply.
- (32) (p. 54): given the total demand, the expected treatment and control counts of type i are the total times ρ(λi+βi)/(λi+ρβi) and (1−ρ)λi/(λi+ρβi).
- Lemma 5 (p. 53): E[Df(D)]=λE[f(D+1)] for D∼Poisson(λ).
Companion: Corollary 2 (p. 24)
If ∣Ψτ′′∣≤M on [0,1], then ∣E[Δ^SPτ]−Δτ∣≤M/2.
Significance
Theorem 6 says the shadow-price estimator measures, in expectation, the derivative of the value function at the experiment state, for every finite market and for every network, with no uniqueness assumption on optimal dual solutions. It is what licenses the estimator outside the fluid limit, where the matching problem is frequently degenerate. Corollary 2 turns it into an explicit bias bound in terms of the curvature of Ψτ, and the same identity integrated over a uniformly random ρ gives an unbiased estimator of Δτ (Theorem 8 of the paper, not part of this mission).
The paper proves Theorem 6 in Appendix C.4.4; none of the statements has been machine-checked. The formalization adds a precise account of the junk cases a proof on paper passes over (infeasible programs at zero demand, the choice of subgradient), a Lean development of Poisson derivative identities that does not exist in Mathlib, and a network-flow LP layer shared with the two sibling missions. Theorem 7 is a discrete-concavity statement about network-flow values that is of independent interest.
Difficulty
The two sides of (14) are expectations under different laws: the right-hand side differentiates an expectation over the total demand in its Poisson means, while the left-hand side is an expectation over the separately observed treatment and control counts of a quantity that depends on both. Differentiating needs control of an infinite Poisson series uniformly in the mean, and differentiability in η is a joint statement about all nd means at once. Computing the left-hand side with the law of the total demand alone loses exactly the information the estimator uses. The finite-sample matching problem is often degenerate, so its optimal duals are not unique; the paper notes that the particular selection a=a− is what makes Theorem 6 hold (p. 25), so no argument that treats the duals as interchangeable can work. Theorem 7 is a discrete-concavity statement about network-flow values that needs integrality of the data, and is the hardest combinatorial statement of the mission.
Formalization scope
Demand types are Fin nd and supply types Fin ns (Lean index i is the paper's type i+1). A network is a structure with arcs carrying their endpoints by type, values and nonnegative capacities. Φτ(d,s) is the supremum of the objective over the feasible set; for nonnegative arguments the set contains x=0 and lies in the box [0,τk], so it is a maximum. Poisson vectors are products (Measure.pi) of Mathlib's poissonMeasure, and the experiment law is the product of the control, treatment and supply laws; independence across all counts is the paper's standing reading of one Poisson process per type. Derivatives are HasDerivAt, so every differentiability claim is part of a conclusion. Statements follow arXiv:2205.02274v4; its printed slips are corrected as disclosed in each item: (16) carries di≥1 wherever εi>0, Lemma 1's uniqueness presupposition becomes a correspondence of optimal sets, Lemma 4 is stated for arbitrary capacities so that it covers Φτ, and (32) drops the redundant conditioning on supply.
Standing hypotheses are λ≥0, λ+β≥0, π≥0, 0<ρ<1, τ>0; Assumptions 1–3 of the paper are not hypotheses of Theorem 6, because its proof uses none of them, and no integrality of capacities is assumed outside Theorem 7. The estimator is (18) applied to Φτ and its expectation is taken under the separate laws of control and treatment counts; it is not defined as a derivative, and its expectation is not computed from the law of the total demand. At zero demand, the infeasible value of Φτ(d−ei,s) is multiplied by a vanishing count, so it never affects the estimator.
Useful infrastructure beyond this mission: derivatives of Poisson expectations in the mean, the binomial conditional law of a Poisson split, and value-function facts for capacitated network-flow LPs. Contributions to any milestone are welcome; Lemmas 3 and 5 and (32) are pure probability and independent of the LP layer.
Selected references
- I. Bright, A. Delarue, I. Lobel, Reducing Marketplace Interference Bias Via Shadow Prices, arXiv:2205.02274v4, 2024; Management Science, 2025. https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.02274v4
- T. Blake, D. Coey, Why Marketplace Experimentation Is Harder than it Seems: The Role of Test-Control Interference, ACM EC, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1145/2600057.2602837
- R. Johari, H. Li, I. Liskovich, G. Y. Weintraub, Experimental Design in Two-Sided Platforms: An Analysis of Bias, Management Science 68(10), 2022. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4247