Using Strategic Uncertainty to Persuade Multiple Agents

Abstract

A principal wishes to persuade multiple agents to take a particular action profile. Each agent cares about both a payoff-relevant state and others’ actions. The principal discloses information about the state to control the agents’ behavior by using their strategic uncertainty. We show that she can persuade them to take an action profile for any non-degenerate prior if that action profile satisfies a generalization of risk dominance. Moreover, such an action profile can be sustained in ways that are “collusion-proof.”