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Related papers: Competitive Information Design for Pandora's Box

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The Pandora's box problem (Weitzman 1979) is a core model in economic theory that captures an agent's (Pandora's) search for the best alternative (box). We study an important generalization of the problem where the agent can either fully…

Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science · Computer Science 2026-04-03 Ali Aouad , Jingwei Ji , Yaron Shaposhnik

The Pandora's Box problem models the search for the best alternative when evaluation is costly. In the simplest variant, a decision maker is presented with $n$ boxes, each associated with a cost of inspection and a hidden random reward. The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-18 Georgios Amanatidis , Ben Berger , Tomer Ezra , Michal Feldman , Federico Fusco , Rebecca Reiffenhäuser , Artem Tsikiridis

We consider online variations of the Pandora's box problem (Weitzman. 1979), a standard model for understanding issues related to the cost of acquiring information for decision-making. Our problem generalizes both the classic Pandora's box…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-01-31 Hossein Esfandiari , MohammadTaghi Hajiaghayi , Brendan Lucier , Michael Mitzenmacher

The Pandora's Box Problem, originally formalized by Weitzman in 1979, models selection from set of random, alternative options, when evaluation is costly. This includes, for example, the problem of hiring a skilled worker, where only one…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-02-20 Shant Boodaghians , Federico Fusco , Philip Lazos , Stefano Leonardi

Pandora's Box is a fundamental stochastic optimization problem, where the decision-maker must find a good alternative while minimizing the search cost of exploring the value of each alternative. In the original formulation, it is assumed…

We study a natural application of contract design in the context of sequential exploration problems. In our principal-agent setting, a search task is delegated to an agent. The agent performs a sequential exploration of $n$ boxes, suffers…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-01-27 Martin Hoefer , Conrad Schecker , Kevin Schewior

We study information design in games where players choose from a continuum of actions and have continuously differentiable payoffs. We show that an information structure is optimal when the equilibrium it induces can also be implemented in…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-04-23 Alex Smolin , Takuro Yamashita

Pandora's Box is a central problem in decision making under uncertainty that can model various real life scenarios. In this problem we are given $n$ boxes, each with a fixed opening cost, and an unknown value drawn from a known…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-02-01 Evangelia Gergatsouli , Christos Tzamos

In 1979, Weitzman introduced Pandora's box problem as a framework for sequential search with costly inspections. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in Pandora's box problem, particularly among researchers working at the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-08-24 Hedyeh Beyhaghi , Linda Cai

In a classic model analysed by Weitzman an agent is presented with boxes containing prizes. She may open boxes in any order, discover prizes within, and optimally stop. She wishes to maximize the expected value of the greatest prize found,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-10-01 Wojciech Olszewski , Richard Weber

Weitzman (1979) introduced the Pandora Box problem as a model for sequential search with inspection costs, and gave an elegant index-based policy that attains provably optimal expected payoff. In various scenarios, the searching agent may…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-12-06 Hu Fu , Jiawei Li , Daogao Liu

A principal who values an object allocates it to one or more agents. Agents learn private information (signals) from an information designer about the allocation payoff to the principal. Monetary transfer is not available but the principal…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-10-31 Yi-Chun Chen , Gaoji Hu , Xiangqian Yang

I study symmetric competitions in which each player chooses an arbitrary distribution over a one-dimensional performance index, subject to a convex cost. I establish existence of a symmetric equilibrium, document various properties it must…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-07 Mark Whitmeyer

We consider the information design problem in spatial resource competition settings. Agents gather at a location deciding whether to move to another location for possibly higher level of resources, and the utility each agent gets by moving…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-09-30 Pu Yang , Krishnamurthy Iyer , Peter Frazier

We consider games in which players search for a hidden prize, and they have asymmetric information about the prize location. We study the social payoff in equilibria of these games. We present sufficient conditions for the existence of an…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-04-19 Gilad Bavly , Yuval Heller , Amnon Schreiber

How does competition in markets for information affect the creation and division of surplus? We study this question in a search environment in which an agent searches sequentially for a high-quality good and learns about the quality of…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-26 Teddy Mekonnen , Bobak Pakzad-Hurson

Incentive design deals with interaction between a principal and an agent where the former can shape the latter's utility through a policy commitment. It is well known that the principal faces an information rent when dealing with an agent…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-09-03 Raj Kiriti Velicheti , Subhonmesh Bose , Tamer Başar

Data buyers compete in a game of incomplete information about which a single data seller owns some payoff-relevant information. The seller faces a joint information- and mechanism-design problem: deciding which information to sell, while…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-11-18 Alessandro Bonatti , Munther Dahleh , Thibaut Horel , Amir Nouripour

This paper addresses information design in a workhorse model of network games, where agents have linear best responses, the information designer maximizes a quadratic objective, and the payoff-relevant state follows a multivariate Gaussian…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-08-18 Masaki Miyashita , Takashi Ui

We study the consequences of information asymmetries and misaligned incentives in settings with multiple independent agents. We model an interaction between a Sender, who holds vital private information but cannot act, and a Receiver, who…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2026-05-13 Nanda Kishore Sreenivas , Kate Larson
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