Constrained automated mechanism design for infinite games of incomplete information. accepted by Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems

We present a functional framework for au-tomated mechanism design based on a two-stage game model of strategic interaction be-tween the designer and the mechanism par-ticipants, and apply it to several classes of two-player infinite games of incomplete in-formation. At the core of our framework is a black-box optimization algorithm which guides the selection process of candidate mechanisms. Our approach yields optimal or nearly optimal mechanisms in several appli-cation domains using various objective func-tions. By comparing our results with known optimal mechanisms, and in some cases im-proving on the best known mechanisms, we provide evidence that ours is a promising ap-proach to parametric design of indirect mech-anisms.