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- Agent
A decision-making entity whose choices affect and are affected by other agents.
- Action
A selectable move taken by an agent within an interdependent setting.
- Influence Structure
The relational pattern specifying how agents’ actions affect one another.
- Information Set
The information available to an agent given what it knows, observes, or infers about others.
- Rule / Institution
A rule-based structure governing how joint actions translate into outcomes.
- Outcome Function
A mapping from joint actions (and relevant information) to results.
- Payoff Magnitude
The numerical outcome an agent receives from joint actions.
- Action Intensity / Effort Level
The strength or level at which an agent acts, affecting others’ outcomes.
- Transfer / Payment Size
The magnitude of transfers, prices, or penalties exchanged among agents.
- Influence Structure
The pattern specifying which agents affect which others.
- Information Structure
The arrangement of who observes what and when.
- Institutional / Rule Architecture
The rule system mapping joint actions to outcomes.
- Belief Updating Rule
How agents revise beliefs in response to others’ actions.
- Strategic Adjustment Speed
The rate at which agents respond to changes in others’ behavior.
- Path Dependence of Interaction
The dependence of current strategic options on past actions.
- Strategic Dependence
The extent to which one agent’s action affects another’s payoff.
- Complementarity / Substitutability
Whether agents’ actions reinforce or counteract one another.
- Externalities
Unpriced spillover effects between agents.
- Communication Channels
The means by which agents send and receive signals.
- Feasible Action Sets (Multi-Agent)
The set of actions permitted for each agent given others’ choices and rules.
- Institutional Constraints
Rules limiting allowable strategies or outcomes across agents.
- Participation Constraints
Conditions under which agents enter, remain in, or exit interaction.
- Beliefs About Other Agents
Probabilistic expectations regarding others’ actions or strategies.
- Information Asymmetry
Differences in what agents know.
- Uncertainty About Rules or Types
Lack of knowledge about others’ characteristics or governing rules.
- Payoff Evaluation
How agents rank outcomes arising from joint actions.
- Strategic Value of Information
The benefit of acquiring or withholding information in interaction.
- Welfare Comparison Across Agents
Normative ranking of outcomes across multiple agents.
- Allocation Rule
A rule specifying how goods, rights, or outcomes are assigned among agents.
- Private Information Signal
Discrete informational content observed by an agent but hidden from others.
- Contract Parameter
A rule-bound commitment defining obligations, transfers, or contingencies.
- Strategy Profile
The distribution of actions chosen or mixed by all agents in the interaction.
- Belief Over Types
A probability distribution over other agents’ characteristics or private information.
- Probability of Strategic States
A belief distribution over possible interaction or game states.
- Payoff Value
A scalar measure of outcome desirability for an agent.
- Valuation
An agent’s private scalar value assigned to goods or outcomes.
- Price
A vector of exchange values coordinating strategic or market responses.
- Marginal Cost
The incremental cost of producing or supplying an additional unit.
- Quantity Vector
Quantities of goods or services traded, supplied, or demanded per interaction.
- Equilibrium Action
The realized action taken when strategic balance is achieved.
- Nash Equilibrium
The condition under which no agent can improve payoff by unilateral deviation.
- Joint Strategy Feasibility
The admissibility condition requiring that all agents’ strategies be simultaneously allowable.
- Equilibrium Existence
The condition that at least one equilibrium configuration exists under specified assumptions.
- Dominance
The relation identifying strategies that are strictly worse than alternatives across all contingencies.
- Incentive Compatibility
The alignment condition under which prescribed actions are consistent with agents’ incentives.
- Strategic Consistency
The requirement that strategies form coherent contingent plans across decision nodes.
- Subgame-Perfect Optimality
The condition that no profitable deviation exists along any feasible continuation path.
- Equilibrium Selection
The relation governing how equilibria are chosen among multiple admissible candidates.
- Mixed Strategy Validity
The consistency condition ensuring probabilistic strategies satisfy coherence constraints.
- Strategic Impossibility
The incompatibility condition under which certain sets of desirable properties cannot be jointly satisfied.
- Best-Response Adjustment
The process by which agents revise admissible actions in response to others’ actions.
- Strategic Compatibility Filtering
The process of eliminating joint strategy profiles that violate mutual admissibility.
- Incentive Alignment
The process by which outcome mappings are shaped so that admissible actions coincide with agents’ incentives.
- Equilibrium Realization
The process through which mutually admissible strategy profiles are generated or selected.
- Information Conditioning
The process by which admissible strategies are restricted based on agents’ information states.
- Randomized Strategy Mixing
The process of generating admissible outcomes via probability-weighted strategy selection.