Overview

This repository contains the code for "D. Condorelli, M. Furlan (2024). Cheap Talking Algorithms". Replication instructions are listed in the replication file.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
• License

Installation

1. Install Julia: Download and install Julia: julialang.org.

2. Install Dependencies: Run in the Julia REPL:

   using Pkg Pkg.add("ArgParse") Pkg.add("TOML") Pkg.add("JLD2") Pkg.add("PrettyTables") Pkg.add("ProgressMeter") Pkg.add("Random") Pkg.add("StatsBase") Pkg.add("PGFPlotsX") Pkg.add("DataStructures")

3. Clone the Repository: Clone this repository to your local machine.

   bash git clone https://github.com/massimilianofurlan/rl_cheap_talk.git

Usage

1. Navigate to the Project Folder:

   bash cd rl_cheap_talk

2. Basic Usage: To run a batch of simulations use

   bash julia --threads=auto --check-bounds=no main.jl [options]

   You can replace auto with the desired number of threads. Options are primarily used to select the configuration of the game, such as the number of states, the extent of the sender's bias, the utility functions and the distribution over states. To get the complete list of options use

   bash julia main.jl --help

   To change the reinforcement learning hyperparameters, such as the learning rate and exploration rate, edit the config file. The section [default] is loaded by default. A different section can be loaded using the --config option.

3. Others: To automatically run a batch of simulations for each bias level in {0.0, 0.01, ..., 0.49, 0.5} use

   bash julia --threads=auto scripts/script1.jl --config=CONFIG_SECTION --out_dir=OUT_DIR --step_bias=0.01

   Replace CONFIG_SECTION with the desired section from the config file and OUT_DIR with the desired name for the output directory. Use --help to get the complete list of options.

   After running the script, TikZ plots can be generated using

   bash julia --threads=auto scripts/generate_plots_1.jl --in_dir=OUT_DIR --step_bias=0.01

   where OUT_DIR must match the output folder of the previous command. Also the increment in the bias must match che one used in the previous command. Generating plots requires an additional Julia dependency. To install it, run in the Julia REPL

   using Pkg Pkg.add("PGFPlotsX") Note that PGFPlotsX also requires having a LaTeX installation on your machine.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

For more information about the AGPL-3.0 license, please visit the GNU website.