Agency and Actions

Agency Models with Frequent Actions

The paper analyzes dynamic principal-agent models with short period lengths. The two main contributions are: (i) an analytic characterization of the values of optimal contracts in the limit as the period length goes to 0, and (ii) the construction of relatively simple (almost) optimal contracts for fixed period lengths. Our setting is flexible and includes the pure hidden action or pure hidden ...

To “ Agency Models with Frequent Actions ”

Reaching Into the Unknown: Actions, Goal Hierarchies, and Explorative Agency

Action is widely characterized as possessing a teleological dimension. The dominant way of describing goal-directed action and agency is in terms of exploitation, i.e., pursuing pre-specified goals using existing strategies. Recent theoretical developments emphasize the place of exploration, i.e., discovering new goals or acquiring new strategies. The exploitation-exploration distinction poses ...

Towards a Logic of Agency and Actions with Duration

As far as we know, there is no multi-agent system allowing to talk both about choices of agents or groups of agents, strategies, and about sufficiently rich actions. This paper aims at offering a path towards a new more expressive logical framework by mixing a STIT-like logic of agency with a PDL-like logic of action. We present the syntax and ontological motivations, and we highlight the expre...

Agency Models with Frequent Actions: A Quadratic Approximation Method

The paper analyzes dynamic principal-agent models with short period lengths. The two main contributions are: (i) an analytic characterization of the values of optimal contracts in the limit as the period length goes to 0, and (ii) the construction of relatively simple (almost) optimal contracts for _xed period lengths. Our setting is exible and includes the pure hidden action or pure hidden inf...