On a general approach to search and information gathering
Kevin W. S. Roberts, Martin L. Weitzman · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · 1980
SunnnaryWe show that an important class of multi-stage decision problems, of which conventional search theory is a special case, can be formulated and constructively solved within a unified framework.The optimal strategy is an elementary reservation price rule, allowing an intuitive economic interpretation and permitting problems to be solved in polynomial rather than exponential time.Computationally efficient algorithms are presented which can be used to numerically calculate reservation prices in real situations.We investigate the qualitative properties of an optimal policy, analyze how they depend on various underlying economic features of the problem, and note what they imply about optimal decisions in different contexts.