Mechanism Design With Limited Commitment

We develop a tool akin to the revelation principle for dynamic mechanism‐selection games in which designer can only commit short‐term mechanisms. identify canonical class of mechanisms rich enough replicate outcomes any equilibrium game between an uninformed and privately informed agent. A cornerstone our methodology is idea that mechanism should encode not rules determine allocation, but also information obtains from interaction with Therefore, how much learns, key tension design limited commitment, becomes explicit part design. Our result simplifies search designer‐optimal outcome by reducing agent's behavior series participation, truth telling, Bayes' plausibility constraints must satisfy.