Game of Duels: Information-Theoretic Axiomatization of Scoring Rules

This paper aims to develop the insights into Bayesian truth serum (BTS) mechanism by postulating a sequence of seven natural conditions reminiscent of axioms in information theory. The condition that reduces a larger family of mechanisms to BTS is additivity, akin to the axiomatic development of entropy. The seven conditions identify BTS as the unique scoring rule for ranking respondents in situations in which respondents are asked to choose an alternative from a finite set and provide predictions of their peers' propensities to choose, for finite or infinite sets of respondents.