{"id":1779,"date":"2022-08-05T09:02:35","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T07:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/"},"modified":"2022-08-05T09:02:35","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T07:02:35","slug":"lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunchseminar in Economics: The Pandora&rsquo;s Box Problem with Sequential Inspections"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"wp-block-unilux-blocks-free-section section\"><div class=\"container xl:max-w-screen-xl\"><p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p><p>The Pandora&rsquo;s box problem is a core model in economic theory that captures an agent&rsquo;s (Pandora&rsquo;s) search for the best alternative (box). We study an important generalization of the problem where the agent can either fully open boxes for a certain fee to reveal their exact values or partially open them at a reduced cost. This introduces a new tradeoff between information acquisition and cost efficiency. We employ an array of techniques in stochastic optimization to provide a comprehensive analysis of this model, which includes (1) the identification of structural properties of the optimal policy that provide insights about optimal decisions; (2) the derivation of provably near-optimal solutions to offline and online variants of the problem; and (3) an extensive numerical study that compares various policies and provides additional insights. Throughout, we show that intuitive threshold-based policies that extend the Pandora&rsquo;s box optimal solution provide very effective solutions.<\/p><\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1780,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"featured_image_focal_point":[],"show_featured_caption":false,"ulux_newsletter_groups":"","uluxPostTitle":"","uluxPrePostTitle":"","_trash_the_other_posts":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"event_start_date":"2022-12-07 13:00:00","event_end_date":"2022-12-07 14:00:00","event_speaker_name":"Yaron Shaposhnik, University of Rochester, US","event_speaker_link":"","event_is_online":false,"event_location":"Please contact dem@uni.lu","event_street":"6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi","event_location_link":"","event_zip_code":"L-1359","event_city":"Luxembourg","event_country":"LU"},"events-topic":[298],"events-type":[],"organisation":[137,100],"authorship":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lunchseminar in Economics: The Pandora&#039;s Box Problem with Sequential Inspections - FDEF I Uni.lu<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AbstractThe Pandora&#039;s box problem is a core model in economic theory that captures an agent&#039;s (Pandora&#039;s) search for the best alternative (box). We study\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lunchseminar in Economics: The Pandora&#039;s Box Problem with Sequential Inspections\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AbstractThe Pandora&#039;s box problem is a core model in economic theory that captures an agent&#039;s (Pandora&#039;s) search for the best alternative (box). We study\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FDEF FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uni.FDEF.lu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2026\/03\/03111953\/FDEF_SM-Profile_1600x1600px-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/\",\"name\":\"Lunchseminar in Economics: The Pandora's Box Problem with Sequential Inspections - FDEF I Uni.lu\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/fdef-fr\/events\/lunchseminar-in-economics-the-pandoras-box-problem-with-sequential-inspections\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uni.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2022\/08\/lunchseminar_in_economics_the_pandora_s_box_problem_with_sequential_inspections.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-05T07:02:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-05T07:02:35+00:00\",\"description\":\"AbstractThe Pandora's box problem is a core model in economic theory that captures an agent's (Pandora's) search for the best alternative (box). 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