The context in which a mechanism is defined and meant to operate plays an important role, and in more than one way. We advocate a contextual approach to mechanism design, that extends to both non-classical aspects of decision and of the physical and information-theoretic environment in which the...

This book introduces a new rationalistic approach towards the formalization of Schelling's concept of focal points within a general game-theoretic framework. The focus is on focal points as a symmetry-breaking device. Hence, focal points in coordination games can be explained while focal points...