Parametric Prediction from Parametric Agents

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Luo, Yuan; Shah, Nihar B.; Huang, Jianwei; Walrand, Jean
• 署名单位: Imperial College London; Chinese University of Hong Kong; Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: OPERATIONS RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0030-364X
• DOI: 10.1287/opre.2017.1681
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 313-326
• 关键词: design; auctions

摘要

We consider a problem of prediction based on opinions elicited from heterogeneous rational agents with private information. Making an accurate prediction with a minimal cost requires a joint design of the incentive mechanism and the prediction algorithm. To elicit heterogeneous agents' private information and incentivize agents with different capabilities to act in the principal's best interest, we design an optimal joint incentive mechanism and prediction algorithm called COPE (COst and Prediction Elicitation), the analysis of which offers several valuable engineering insights. First, when the costs incurred by the agents are linear in the exerted effort, COPE corresponds to a crowd-contending mechanism, where the principal only employs the agent with the highest capability. Second, when the costs are quadratic, COPE corresponds to a crowd-sourcing mechanism that employs multiple agents with different capabilities at the same time. Numerical simulations show that COPE improves the principal's profit (The improvement is 5%-30% in our simulations), comparing to those mechanisms that assume all agents have equal capabilities.