# Recent Developments in Pandora's Box Problem: Variants and Applications

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.12242 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12242/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 23 Aug 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [The Gittins Index: A Design Principle for Decision-Making Under Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.10872/) (2025)
- [Improved Regret and Contextual Linear Extension for Pandora's Box and Prophet Inequality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18828/) (2025)
- [Scores Are Not Decisions: Cost-Aware Stopping for Tool Acquisition in LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.27083/) (2026)
- [Statistical Guarantees in the Search for Less Discriminatory Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.23943/) (2025)
- [The Secretary Problem with a Stochastic Precursor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22653/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In 1979, Weitzman introduced Pandora's box problem as a framework for sequential search with costly inspections. Recently, there has been a surge of interest in Pandora's box problem, particularly among researchers working at the intersection of economics and computation. This survey provides an overview of the recent literature on Pandora's box problem, including its latest extensions and applications in areas such as market design, decision theory, and machine learning.