PolicyMediator: Multi-Regional Policy Learning through Mediation Agents with Evolving Skills in OPC Ecosystems
Organizations: Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China · United Nations University Institute in Macau, Macau, China
Abstract
One-person companies (OPCs) are emerging enterprises operated by individual entrepreneurs through digital platforms and LLM-based AI agents. These highly skilled entrepreneurs are characterized by being digital nomads, with limited reliance on local ecosystems. Governments in China use distinct regional support policies to attract mobile OPCs, turning local support into a cross-regional coordination problem. OPCs compare regions to maximize their own utility, but imperfect policy perceptions may cause them to reject otherwise suitable locations. Existing policy-learning methods optimize resources under fixed perceptions, while consensus-formation methods aggregate views without feeding cognitive changes back into policy learning. This disconnect produces mismatched location choices and inefficient regional policy adjustment. We introduce PolicyMediator, a cognition-constrained leader-multi-follower Stackelberg framework with bilateral mediation. The mediator explains verified policies to OPCs to build awareness and trust, and reports their needs and unresolved concerns to governments for policy learning. Its self-evolving skills retain, revise, or prune strategies using verification, allocation, capacity, and objective trajectories rather than mediation success alone. Across six-region simulations in China with five OPC types, five scenarios, and three OPC-simulator backbones, PolicyMediator ranks first in all 15 OPC-backbone--scenario combinations. Over the eight-baseline mean, it improves the aggregate government objective, combining economic performance, employment benefit, and policy-access equality, by 42.4% and average OPC utility by 40.9%.
Figures & tables
| Comparison | Restraint | Regional | Targeting | Specificity | Progression | Average | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | Lose | Win | Lose | Win | Lose | Win | Lose | Win | Lose | Win | Lose | |
| PolicyMediator vs. CONSENSAGENT | 56.0 | 42.0 | 58.0 | 41.0 | 20.0 | 45.0 | 51.0 | 12.0 | 33.2 | |||
| PolicyMediator vs. Contextual Bandit | 12.0 | 46.0 | 40.0 | 53.0 | 26.0 | 36.0 | 34.6 | |||||
| PolicyMediator vs. Generic Explainer | 4.0 | 17.0 | 0.0 | 7.0 | 0.0 | 5.6 | ||||||
Appendix figures & tables2 assets
Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.
Appendix
| Simulated OPC Dialogue: Policy Explanation and Trust Building | ||
|---|---|---|
| Policy context | OPC type: creator. Policy package: 34% price subsidy, 58% computing support, and a 12-month rent-free period. | Baseline ; ; . |
| Turn 0 | Mediator—concern elicitation: “Which step worries you most: reimbursement, approval, or something else? We will answer from verified policy facts.” OPC: “Is computing support actually usable or only a paper promise? Show me a signed quota or access agreement.” | ; ; . Delivery uncertainty emerges; trust and regional relevance decline. |
| Turn 1 | Mediator—verified evidence: “The Commission publishes redemption records for computing vouchers and rent-free space. Vouchers cover actual usage, while guaranteed loans require guarantor approval.” OPC: “The records reduce voucher risk, but I still need the local approval rate for the guaranteed loan.” | ; ; . Voucher evidence reduces delivery concerns, while loan approval remains uncertain. |
| Turn 2 | Mediator—procedural clarification: “Voucher and space support are documented, but the loan’s no-penalty clause remains unverified. You may apply for verified support while seeking written loan terms.” OPC: “I will start those two applications but defer the loan until I verify the no-penalty clause.” | ; ; . Verified information restores trust despite remaining loan uncertainty. |
| Observed outcome | Final stance: Conditional acceptance ; confidence ; mediation success: True . | Net update: , , and . Each per-turn update satisfies Eq. ( 2 ). |
| Bilateral Mediator Feedback Trace | ||
| Setting | Value / range |
|---|---|
| OPCs per run | |
| Type proportions (S1–S4) | |
| Type proportions (S5) | |
| Entry-cost multiplier / (S1–S5) | |
| Outside-option coefficient / reporting scale | |
| Cycles / actor step / perturbation radius |
Policy Learning
Policy learning develops decision rules that choose actions or interventions to maximize outcomes from data, feedback, or interaction.
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