Algorithmic information structure design

Abstract

Information structure design , also sometimes known as signaling or persuasion , is concerned with understanding the effects of information on the outcomes of strategic interactions (the descriptive question), and in characterizing and computing the information sharing strategies which optimize some design objective (the prescriptive question). Both questions are illuminated through the lens of algorithms and complexity, as evidenced by recent work on the topic in the algorithmic game theory community. This monograph is a biased survey of this work, and paints a picture of the current state of progress and challenges ahead. We divide information structure design into single agent and multiple agent models, and further subdivide the multiple agent case into the public channel and private channel modes of information revelation. In each of these three cases, we describe the most prominent models and applications, survey the associated algorithms and complexity results and their structural implications, and outline directions for future work.