There are many situations where policymakers are primarily concerned with the availability and accessibility of goods or services. Examples include electricity, food, housing, medical supplies, et cetera . In such cases, the social goal may be to maximize the number of transactions, which we refer to as a maximal matching. This paper presents a mechanism that implements this objective for markets characterized by bilateral transactions. The mechanism is incentive compatible, but, like the VCG-mechanism that yields the total-utility-maximizing outcome, it requires external funding.
Triêu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.