Theoretical Foundations and Design of Persuasion Mechanisms
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Economics and Finance
Abstract
The proposed research studies the problem of persuasion. In this problem, a persuader has a substantial degree of control over information to be acquired and selectively disclosed, which can be used to manipulate a listener's beliefs and actions.
There are two broad questions to be addressed. One is the question of optimal persuasion design, a selective disclosure of information that maximizes the chance to persuade the listener. For example, suppose that a government would like to persuade the public to reduce the amount of public smoking by commissioning an educational campaign about the health risks of cigarettes. What is the optimal way to conduct the educational campaign? Should the government target different consumer groups by providing them with different information or is it efficient to provide the same information to everyone? When should the government withhold information from the public? How should the distribution of tastes among the consumers affect the optimal amount of information released by the government?
The second question is about protection of individuals from detrimental manipulation by a persuader. What are the factors that affect a listener's vulnerability to being persuaded and manipulated, and what can be done to reduce this vulnerability? What are the roles of individual privacy, diversity of individual tastes and opinions, and information transparency in organisations?
There is vast scope for potential impact of the proposed research project. Areas of impact include (but not limited to) optimal certification policies of financial and consumer products; public education campaigns; media censorship regulations; commercial advertising regulations (e.g., in pharmaceutical industry); privacy protection in social networks and internet trading portals; informational lobbying (e.g., a lobbying group commissions a study with the goal of influencing a politician's decision about adoption of a policy); persuasion issues in the design of experiments in social sciences.
The economics of persuasion, dwelling upon microeconomics and information theory, was pioneered by Rayo and Segal (Journal of Political Economy, 2010) and Kamenica and Gentzkow (American Economic Review, 2011). Despite the apparent power and generality of this theoretical framework, concrete insights into real-world persuasion mechanisms have so far been lacking (DellaVigna and Gentzkow (Annual Review of Economics, 2010) report evidence on systematic departures from existing theoretical models). One key roadblock is that existing theoretical methods are relatively intractable, and thus can only be usefully applied in very limited and specific settings. In particular, three important classes of economic settings that the current approaches can't handle:
- persuasion of an audience of diverse listeners with privately known preferences or interests;
- imperfect knowledge or (partial) misunderstanding of a persuasion mechanism by listeners;
- a prior informational advantage of a persuader (before a persuasion mechanism is chosen), so called "informed principal" problem in the persuasion context.
The proposed research project will apply the tools from mechanism design in novel ways to the persuasion problem. These tools will enable tractable analysis of the persuasion problem in each of the three settings described above. The proposed research project will build a comprehensive theoretical framework that incorporates the above scenarios and, hence, will be able to provide practically relevant guidance to policy makers, legislators, and human rights and consumer protection organizations.
There are two broad questions to be addressed. One is the question of optimal persuasion design, a selective disclosure of information that maximizes the chance to persuade the listener. For example, suppose that a government would like to persuade the public to reduce the amount of public smoking by commissioning an educational campaign about the health risks of cigarettes. What is the optimal way to conduct the educational campaign? Should the government target different consumer groups by providing them with different information or is it efficient to provide the same information to everyone? When should the government withhold information from the public? How should the distribution of tastes among the consumers affect the optimal amount of information released by the government?
The second question is about protection of individuals from detrimental manipulation by a persuader. What are the factors that affect a listener's vulnerability to being persuaded and manipulated, and what can be done to reduce this vulnerability? What are the roles of individual privacy, diversity of individual tastes and opinions, and information transparency in organisations?
There is vast scope for potential impact of the proposed research project. Areas of impact include (but not limited to) optimal certification policies of financial and consumer products; public education campaigns; media censorship regulations; commercial advertising regulations (e.g., in pharmaceutical industry); privacy protection in social networks and internet trading portals; informational lobbying (e.g., a lobbying group commissions a study with the goal of influencing a politician's decision about adoption of a policy); persuasion issues in the design of experiments in social sciences.
The economics of persuasion, dwelling upon microeconomics and information theory, was pioneered by Rayo and Segal (Journal of Political Economy, 2010) and Kamenica and Gentzkow (American Economic Review, 2011). Despite the apparent power and generality of this theoretical framework, concrete insights into real-world persuasion mechanisms have so far been lacking (DellaVigna and Gentzkow (Annual Review of Economics, 2010) report evidence on systematic departures from existing theoretical models). One key roadblock is that existing theoretical methods are relatively intractable, and thus can only be usefully applied in very limited and specific settings. In particular, three important classes of economic settings that the current approaches can't handle:
- persuasion of an audience of diverse listeners with privately known preferences or interests;
- imperfect knowledge or (partial) misunderstanding of a persuasion mechanism by listeners;
- a prior informational advantage of a persuader (before a persuasion mechanism is chosen), so called "informed principal" problem in the persuasion context.
The proposed research project will apply the tools from mechanism design in novel ways to the persuasion problem. These tools will enable tractable analysis of the persuasion problem in each of the three settings described above. The proposed research project will build a comprehensive theoretical framework that incorporates the above scenarios and, hence, will be able to provide practically relevant guidance to policy makers, legislators, and human rights and consumer protection organizations.
Planned Impact
Non-academic beneficiaries from the proposed research are divided into two groups.
The first group of users will benefit from our recommendations and guidelines for the efficient design of persuasion mechanisms. Practically the recommendations will come in the form of advice regarding laws and regulations on information disclosure that facilitate desirable actions of a target audience. Campaign Resource Centre (the UK Department of Health) will be interested in recommendations about educational campaigns of vaccination, smoking, obesity, exercise, etc. VoxUkraine, an influential non-government organisation that conducts independent research-based policy analysis by leading scholars, policymakers and businessmen in Ukraine, has agreed to contribute to this research project by providing feedback and participating in steering group meetings. Particular issues that we can help to address are:
- How should public educational campaigns be designed to encourage people to make informed health decisions about vaccination, diet, exercise, etc?
- How should the government motivate people to acquire information about political issues and candidates, and thus produce informed voting outcomes?
- How should laws be designed to prevent rogue administrations from abusing their control of the media?
- How should financial regulations be designed to encourage accounting firms and financial institutions to disclose relevant financial information to the public?
The second group of beneficiaries includes consumer protection organisations, such as Citizens Advice, Citizens Advice Scotland and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, as well as organisations acting in the public interest that tackle the problems of transparency of authorities and protection of individual privacy, such as the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, Privacy International, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc. Particular issues that we can help to address are:
- What are the reasons that cause an individual to be vulnerable to persuasion and manipulation?
- What are efficient methods to address this problem? What are the points of impact in the legislature that have to be altered? What public institutions should be created or improved?
This project will produce theoretical insights and practical prescriptions for these and related questions, which have can have social, political and economic implications at home and abroad. This can be of particular importance for developing countries, where the PI (Andriy Zapechelnyuk) and his academic collaborator, Tymofiy Mylovanov, have a record of contribution beyond the academic sphere. The PI have completed the grant project on modelling of the electricity market in Ukraine (IDRC grant, CRED project no. 104241); Tymofiy Mylovanov is an editor of VoxUkraine, and (together with Roger Myerson, who won the Nobel prize for his contributions to mechanism design) he has been leading an initiative to reform the Ukrainian constitution, with the goal of decentralizing the distribution of political power in Ukraine (see, for e
The first group of users will benefit from our recommendations and guidelines for the efficient design of persuasion mechanisms. Practically the recommendations will come in the form of advice regarding laws and regulations on information disclosure that facilitate desirable actions of a target audience. Campaign Resource Centre (the UK Department of Health) will be interested in recommendations about educational campaigns of vaccination, smoking, obesity, exercise, etc. VoxUkraine, an influential non-government organisation that conducts independent research-based policy analysis by leading scholars, policymakers and businessmen in Ukraine, has agreed to contribute to this research project by providing feedback and participating in steering group meetings. Particular issues that we can help to address are:
- How should public educational campaigns be designed to encourage people to make informed health decisions about vaccination, diet, exercise, etc?
- How should the government motivate people to acquire information about political issues and candidates, and thus produce informed voting outcomes?
- How should laws be designed to prevent rogue administrations from abusing their control of the media?
- How should financial regulations be designed to encourage accounting firms and financial institutions to disclose relevant financial information to the public?
The second group of beneficiaries includes consumer protection organisations, such as Citizens Advice, Citizens Advice Scotland and the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, as well as organisations acting in the public interest that tackle the problems of transparency of authorities and protection of individual privacy, such as the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK, Privacy International, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc. Particular issues that we can help to address are:
- What are the reasons that cause an individual to be vulnerable to persuasion and manipulation?
- What are efficient methods to address this problem? What are the points of impact in the legislature that have to be altered? What public institutions should be created or improved?
This project will produce theoretical insights and practical prescriptions for these and related questions, which have can have social, political and economic implications at home and abroad. This can be of particular importance for developing countries, where the PI (Andriy Zapechelnyuk) and his academic collaborator, Tymofiy Mylovanov, have a record of contribution beyond the academic sphere. The PI have completed the grant project on modelling of the electricity market in Ukraine (IDRC grant, CRED project no. 104241); Tymofiy Mylovanov is an editor of VoxUkraine, and (together with Roger Myerson, who won the Nobel prize for his contributions to mechanism design) he has been leading an initiative to reform the Ukrainian constitution, with the goal of decentralizing the distribution of political power in Ukraine (see, for e
Publications
Kolotilin A
(2017)
Persuasion of a Privately Informed Receiver
in Econometrica
Zapechelnyuk A
(2020)
Optimal Quality Certification
in American Economic Review: Insights
Kolotilin A
(2022)
Censorship as optimal persuasion
in Theoretical Economics
| Description | The published paper titled "Persuasion of a privately informed receiver" establishes equivalence between public and personalised persuasion. In summary, in a broad class of environments, there is no advantage of personalised persuasion based on self reported information (e.g., a patient fills the web form of medical history and receives a recommendation whether a particular drug is suitable in his/her case) over persuasion by public information (e.g., a patient reads a drug instruction leaflet to decide whether that drug is suitable in his/her case). Thus, an efficient persuasion campaign (e.g., convincing people to get vaccinated or to drink less) does not have to rely on individuals' private information. Another published paper titles "Optimal quality certification" connects two strands of literature, on the problem of certification and on the problem of delegation, thus being a substantial contribution to the literature on certification. The paper has applied relevance by showing that, under standard assumptions, simple and practical certification systems, such as quality assurance rule and pass-fail rule, are optimal. Three other paper are at the advanced stages of completion (revisions requested in journals). The first paper is titled "Are there 'Ratatouille' restaurants? On anticorrelation of food quality and hygiene." The paper studies the empirical relationship between hygiene conditions in restaurants and their food quality rated by both professional reviewers and consumers. Using evidence from the UK, it is shown that this relationship is negative and statistically significant, so, a higher food quality rating is generally associated with a less sanitary kitchen. The findings illuminate potential channels through which the anticorrelation between food quality and hygiene could be mitigated, which can be helpful for hygiene inspection design. The second paper is titled "Persuasion meets delegation." This is a fundamental work bridging persuasion and delegation literature, both being very popular in recent years. Notably, it allows to address challenging delegation problems, such as monopoly regulation with a participation constraint, using recent findings from the persuasion literature. The third paper is titled "Censorship as Optimal Persuasion." The paper studies necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimality of persuasion in the form of censorship. It is shown that the persuader censors more information if the persuader becomes more risk averse or the audience is more supportive or less oppositional. The results are applied to analyze the problem of media censorship by a government. |
| Exploitation Route | The finding provide insights in designing persuasion efficient persuasion campaigns (e.g., convincing people to get vaccinated or to drink less) or rating/certification of cervices (e.g., financial rating of banks and other financial institutions, or hygiene certification of restaurants). The findings also provide better understanding of how persuasion policies work and in what political landscapes there is more free speech and less censorship. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
| URL | https://persuasion.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk |
| Description | A talk at 2017 ESSET Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "On the Connection between Persuasion and Delegation" at the 2017 ESSET Conference (European Summer Symposium in Economic Theory, 3-14 July, Gerzensee, Switzerland), organised by CEPR (Centre for Economic Policy Research). This talk presented recent results on the Project's line of research "Delegation Approach to Persuasion." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://cepr.org/event/ESSET-2017 |
| Description | A talk at 2018 NBER Organizational Economics Meeting, Cambridge, MA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at NBER Organizational Economics Meeting, 16-17 November 2018, Cambridge, MA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://conference.nber.org/conferences/2018/OEf18/summary.html |
| Description | A talk at the 2018 EEA-ESEM Meeting, Cologne |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the European Economic Association & Econometric Society Meeting, August 2018, Cologne, Germany. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.econometricsociety.org/meetings/schedule/2018/08/27/2018-european-summer-meeting |
| Description | A talk at the 2020 EEA-ESEM Meeting, Milan |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Optimal Persuasion with Application to Media Censorship" at the European Economic Association & Econometric Society Meeting, August 2020, virtual (hosted by Bocconi Universtiy, Milan, Italy) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | A talk at the Australasian Economic Theory Workshop, Canberra |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the Australasian Economic Theory Workshop 2018, Canberra, Australia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://sites.google.com/site/aetw2018/ |
| Description | A talk at the Conference on Economics of Strategic Communication and Persuasion, Montreal |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the Conference on Economics of Strategic Communication and Persuasion, organised by CIRANO, Montreal, Canada. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.cirano.qc.ca/fr/evenements/744 |
| Description | A talk at the Conference on Mechanism and Institution Design, Durham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the 2018 Conference on Mechanism and Institution Design, Durham University Business School, Durham, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.dur.ac.uk/business/news-and-events/event-details/?id=37684 |
| Description | A talk at the Economic Theory Workshop, University of East Anglia, Norwich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economic Theory Workshop, July 2018, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | A talk at the Economics Theory Meeting, Bonn |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the Economic Theory Meeting, University of Bonn, Germany |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | A talk at the Lancaster Game Theory Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the Lancaster Game Theory Conference organised by the Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lums/economics/research/seminars-and-conferences/game-theory-conference/ |
| Description | A talk at the Seminar Series on Communication and Persuasion |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Under Insufficient Reason" at the Seminar Series on Communication and Persuasion held virtually (July 2020, St Andrews, UK) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | A talk at the Workshop on Mechanism Design and Behavioral Economics, Glasgow |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Workshop on Mechanism Design and Behavioral Economics, Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.coalitiontheory.net/content/3rd-glasgow-workshop-mechanism-design-and-behavioural-econom... |
| Description | Invited talk at Australian Economic Theory Workshop 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Censorship as Optimal Persuasion" at the Australian Economic Theory Workshop 2020, University of Adelaide, Australia, February 2020 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited talk at Bristol-Kent-Southampton Workshop on Economic Theory, Bristol, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at Bristol-Kent-Southampton Workshop on Economic Theory, June 10-11 2019, Bristol, UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/efm/events/2019/bristol-kent-southampton-workshop-in-economic-theory.html |
| Description | Invited talk at UNSW Business School, Sydney, Australia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Optimal Quality Certification" at the UNSW Business School, Sydney, December 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at ASSA Annual Meeting 2020, San Diego, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Censorship as Optimal Persuasion" at the Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) 2020 Annual Meeting, San Diego, USA, January 2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Invited talk at Boston University, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, Boston University, MA, USA, April 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at California Institute of Technology, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, Northwestern University, IL, USA, March 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at Harvard-MIT Seminar in Economic Theory, Cambridge, MA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at Harvard-MIT Seminar in Economic Theory, September 2018, Cambridge, MA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation, June 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, CA, USA, April 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at Northwestern University, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, Northwestern University, IL, USA, March 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at Sydney Economic Design Festival: Information, Markets and Mechanisms, Sydney, Australia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at Sydney Economic Design Festival: Information, Markets and Mechanisms, November 13-15 2019, Sydney, Australia |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.economicdesignfestival.net/ |
| Description | Invited talk at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Seminar, December 2018, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, MN, USA, March 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of California San Diego, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, University of California - San Diego, CA, USA, April 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA, March 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://calendars.illinois.edu/detail/6144?eventId=33333759 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of Miami, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, University of Miami, FL, USA, April 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of New South Wales |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the University of New South Wales |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of St Andrews, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews, UK, May 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of St Andrews, UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Are There Ratatouille Restaurants? On Anticorrelation of Food Quality and Hygiene" at the School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews, UK, November 2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of Technology Sydney |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave talks on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the University of Technology Sydney. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at University of University of California Los Angeles, USA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Department, University of California - Los Angeles, CA, USA, April 2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at Unversity of York |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Economics Seminar, October 2018, University of York, UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Invited talk at he Berlin Theory Seminar Series, Berlin |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the Berlin Theory Seminar Series, Berlin, January 2019, co-organised by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, DIW Berlin, and the European School of Management and Technology. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Invited talk at the CREST Seminar, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Persuasion Meets Delegation" at the CREST (Center for Research in Economics and Statistics) Seminar, Paris, France. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://crest.science/event/andy-zapechelnyuk-university-of-st-andrews-persuasion-meets-delegation |
| Description | Invited talk: Roy-Adres Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the Roy-Adres Seminar co-organised by Paris School of Economics, Université Paris-Dauphine, and Université Paris 1. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk: University of Chicago |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Anton Kolotilin gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the University of Chicago |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Invited talk: university of Mannheim |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk gave a talk on "Delegation Approach to Persuasion" at the University of Mannheim |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Meeting with Mr Geoff Ogle, CEO of Food Standards Scotland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A meeting with Mr Geoff Ogle, CEO of Food Standards Scotland, on Friday 16th February. Food Standards Scotland is a stakeholder organization in the current project that we target to make impact through. On Friday 16th Feb, there was an initial discussion with the CEO where we outlined the directions and priorities of the research, and identified key people within Food Standards Scotland that we need to work with in future. In addition, Mr Geoff Ogle gave a practitioner seminar aimed at post and undergraduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://persuasion.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/geoffogle/ |
| Description | Panel member, Conference on Policy and Mechanism Design in Politically Challenging Environments, Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk was a panel member at the Conference on Policy and Mechanism Design in Politically Challenging Environments, 25-27th July 2018, organised by Kyiv School of Economics. The conference held a series of talks and round-table discussions between world leading academic specialists on mechanism and market design and representatives of Ukrainian public authorities and government agencies, as well as members of the parliament of Ukraine. This was an invitation-only event with no media coverage to encourage open expressions of views by the participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Project website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A website and blog that reports progress and activities of the research project and allows for comments and discussions |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://persuasion.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk |
| Description | Public lecture on "Economics of Persuasion and Strategic Information Manipulation" at University of St Andrews |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An inaugural lecture on "Economics of Persuasion and Strategic Information Manipulation" organized by the University of St Andrews and delivered by Andy Zapechelnyuk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Research output presented at Competition and Markets Authority |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Hisayuki Yoshimoto presents the research findings on the project of quality certification and online reviews at Competition and Markets Authority, London, March 2020. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Seminar Series on Communication and Persuasion, Summer 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The online seminar series, held in place of the canceled Symposium on Communication and Persuasion (March 13-14, 2020). Each session features two 40-min talks and a 30-min discussion time. The keynote speakers include Emir Kamenica (University of Chicago), Joel Sobel (University of California - San Diego), and Tymofiy Mylovanov (Government of Ukraine and University of Pittsburgh). The seminar series is co-organized by Teddy Kim (Emory University) and Andy Zapechelnyuk (University of St Andrews). The full list of speakers and talks can be found here: https://persuasion.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/seminars/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://persuasion.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/seminars/ |
| Description | Special session within the 2017 SAET Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A session on the frontiers of information design, persuasion and communication, organised within the 2017 SAET Conference (Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory), Faro, Portugal, June 25-30, 2017. The session featured the talks from leading specialists in the field: "On the value of persuasion by experts" by Ricardo Alonso (London School of Economics), joint with Odilon Camara (University of Southern California) "Relational Communication" by Anton Kolotilin (University of New South Wales), joint with Hongyi Li (University of New South Wales) "Disclosure and Pricing of Attributes" by Alex Smolin (University of Bonn) "Disclosure and Rollover Risk" by Jack Stecher (Carnegie Mellon University), joint with Michael Ebert (University of Paderborn), Joseph B. Kadane (Carnegie Mellon University), and Dirk Simons (University of Mannheim) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Special session within the 2019 SAET Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk organised a session on the frontiers of information design, persuasion and communication at the 2019 SAET Conference (Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory), Ischia, Italy, June 30-July 5. The session featured the talks from leading specialists in the field: - "Belief Management and Optimal Arbitration" by Johannes Schneider (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), joint with Benjamin Balzer (University of Technology Sydney) - "Persuasion for the Long Run" by James Best (Carnegie Mellon University), joint with Daniel Quigley (University of Oxford) - "Optimal Persuasion with an Application to Media Censorship" by Andy Zapechelnyuk (St Andrews), joint with Anton Kolotilin (UNSW) and Tymofiy Mylovanov (University of Pittsburgh) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Special session within the 2021 SAET Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Andy Zapechelnyuk organised a session on the frontiers of information design, persuasion and communication at the 2021 SAET Conference (Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory), Seoul, Korea, June 13-17, 2021. The session featured the talks from leading specialists in the field. Ludmila Matyskova (University of Bonn, Germany) presented "Bayesian Persuasion with Costly Information Acquisition." Eugen Kovac (University of Duisburg, Germany) presented "A simple proof of strong duality in the linear persuasion problem." Andy Zapechelnyuk presented "Persuasion under Insufficient Reason." Claudia Herresthal (University of Bonn, Germany) presented "Hidden Testing and Selective Disclosure of Evidence." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |