Pigouvian pricing and stochastic evolutionary implementation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sandholm, William H.
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2005.09.005
• 发表日期: 2007
• 页码: 367-382
• 关键词: Evolutionary game theory; implementation theory; externality pricing; potential games; equilibrium selection

摘要

We study the implementation of efficient behavior in settings with externalities. A planner would like to ensure that a group of agents make socially optimal choices, but he only has limited information about the agents' preferences, and can only distinguish individual agents through the actions they choose. We describe the agents' behavior using a stochastic evolutionary model, assuming that their choice probabilities are given by the logit choice rule. We prove that there is a simple price scheme with the following property: regardless of the realization of preferences, a group of agents subjected to the price scheme will spend the vast majority of time in the long run behaving efficiently. The price scheme defines a game that may possess multiple equilibria, but we are able to obtain a unique and efficient selection from this set because of the stochastic nature of the agents' choice rule. We conclude by comparing the performance of our price scheme with that of VCG mechanisms. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.