Mechanism design is a field in economics and game theory concerned with designing rules, incentives, or systems that produce desired outcomes when participants act strategically. In AI and multi-agent contexts, it helps structure interactions so that individual incentives align with system-level objectives.
A field in economics and game theory that takes an engineering approach to designing economic mechanisms or incentives, toward desired objectives, in strategic settings, where players act rationally. Because it starts at the end of the game, then goes backwards, it is also called reverse game theory. It has broad applications, from economics and politics (markets, auctions, voting procedures) to networked-systems (internet interdomain routing, sponsored search auctions).