In Interaction-based economics, protocols specify the formal data-acquisition design by which rule-governed exchanges among agents are sampled, scheduled, controlled, and recorded so that resulting datasets are reproducible, comparable, and interpretable. Protocols operate at the level of interaction populations, determining which exchanges enter evidence and the limits of valid inference about strategic behavior.
Controlled Conditions and Isolation of Variables
Interaction protocols define controlled strategic environments to isolate variables of interest.
Protocols specify the rules of interaction, participant roles, information structure, enforcement mechanisms, and institutional context under which exchanges occur. Where full control is infeasible, protocols prescribe standardized approximations to constrain extraneous coordination, communication, or enforcement effects.
Isolation at the protocol level ensures that observed variation reflects strategic interdependence under defined rules rather than uncontrolled institutional drift.
Standardized Procedures and Calibration
Interaction protocols require standardized exchange and recording frameworks.
Protocols fix transaction formats, pricing conventions, timing rules, communication channels, and payoff representations across all data-collection instances. Calibration aligns units of account, timing references, and institutional benchmarks so that interaction records are comparable across sessions, markets, or implementations.
Standardization applies across the full interaction dataset, not merely within individual exchanges.
Repetition and Reproducibility
Interaction protocols define repetition at the level of exchange environments.
Protocols specify how often identical interaction structures are instantiated, across participant groups, time periods, or market instances. Reproducibility is achieved when the same interaction protocol, applied to comparable agent populations, yields structurally similar interaction datasets.
Repetition supports inference about interaction structure rather than replication of specific strategic outcomes.
Systematic and Comprehensive Data Collection
Interaction protocols prescribe systematic coverage of the interaction space.
Protocols define how interaction conditions are varied, how participants or markets are sampled, and how exchanges are selected so that collected data represent the intended strategic domain. Sampling rules—randomized, stratified, or structured—are explicitly specified to delimit the scope of inference.
Comprehensive protocol design ensures that evidence reflects the interaction mechanisms under study rather than opportunistic observation.
Timing and Synchronization
Interaction protocols fix the temporal structure of exchange observation.
Protocols specify when interactions are observed, how frequently exchanges are recorded, and how timing is synchronized across participants, markets, or platforms. Temporal coordination ensures that sequencing, simultaneity, and dynamic responses are captured consistently.
Timing protocols ensure temporal comparability of interaction events across the data-collection window.
Documentation and Formal Protocols
All Interaction protocols must be formally documented.
Documentation specifies interaction rules, role definitions, information conditions, sampling schemes, timing conventions, calibration references, and data-recording practices. Protocol documentation must be sufficient for independent reconstruction of the interaction environment and assessment of dataset validity and generalizability.
An interaction dataset without a documented acquisition protocol does not constitute admissible evidence.