Computational complexity of single-dimensional typed contracts with general action sets

Establish the computational complexity of computing an optimal deterministic menu of contracts in the single-dimensional cost-per-unit-of-effort model when the number of actions is arbitrary and the number of agent types is constant.

Background

The survey shows a reduction from multi-dimensional to single-dimensional typed contract settings and reports tractability for constant actions. It pinpoints a remaining gap: the complexity when the number of actions is general and the number of types is constant.

Determining hardness or polynomial-time algorithms for this regime would sharpen the boundary between tractable and intractable typed contract design problems.