Representing and solving asymmetric Bayesian decisionproblemsThomas

This paper deals with the representation and solution of asymmetric Bayesian decision problems. We present a formal framework, termed asymmetric innuence diagrams, that is based on the innuence diagram and allows an eecient representation of asymmetric decision problems. The asymmetric innuence diagram primarily encodes the asymmetry at the qualitative level and the asymmetry can therefore be read directly from the model; existing methods speciies the asymmetry at the quantitative level. We give an algorithm for solving asymmetric innuence diagrams by decomposing the initial decision problem into a collection of symmetric subproblems. These subproblems can then be solved using existing methods for solving innuence diagrams. We illustrate the asymmetric innuence diagram by representing and solving the \Used bar buyer problem""Howard, 1962].