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We present distributed algorithms that can be used by multiple agents to align their estimates with a particular value over a network with time-varying connectivity. Our framework is general in that this value can represent a consensus…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2010-04-20 Angelia Nedić , Asuman Ozdaglar , Pablo A. Parrilo

We provide a Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme (PTAS) for the Bayesian optimal multi-item multi-bidder auction problem under two conditions. First, bidders are independent, have additive valuations and are from the same population.…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-11-06 Yang Cai , Zhiyi Huang

A contract is an economic tool used by a principal to incentivize one or more agents to exert effort on her behalf, by defining payments based on observable performance measures. A key challenge addressed by contracts -- known in economics…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-12-24 Paul Duetting , Michal Feldman , Inbal Talgam-Cohen

Agent behavior is arguably the greatest source of uncertainty in trajectory planning for autonomous vehicles. This problem has motivated significant amounts of work in the behavior prediction community on learning rich distributions of the…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-07-16 Allen Wang , Ashkan Jasour , Brian Williams

We study Bayesian persuasion under approximate best response, where the receiver may choose any action that is not too much suboptimal given their posterior belief upon receiving the signal. We focus on the computational aspects of the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-02-14 Kunhe Yang , Hanrui Zhang

We study a class of combinatorial scheduling problems characterized by a particular type of constraint often associated with electrical power or gas energy. This constraint appears in several practical applications and is expressed as a sum…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-12-27 Trung Thanh Nguyen , Khaled Elbassioni , Areg Karapetyan , Majid Khonji

Game theory serves as a powerful tool for distributed optimization in multi-agent systems in different applications. In this paper we consider multi-agent systems that can be modeled by means of potential games whose potential function…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-04-13 Tatiana Tatarenko

In this paper, we consider a problem of contract theory in which several Principals hire a common Agent and we study the model in the continuous time setting. We show that optimal contracts should satisfy some equilibrium conditions and we…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2018-01-15 Thibaut Mastrolia , Zhenjie Ren

We consider a combinatorial auction setting where buyers have fractionally subadditive (XOS) valuations over the items and the seller's objective is to maximize the social welfare. A prophet inequality in this setting bounds the competitive…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-05-23 Shuchi Chawla , Trung Dang , Zhiyi Huang , Yifan Wang

We analyze conditional optimization problems arising in discrete time Principal-Agent problems of delegated portfolio optimization with linear contracts. Applying tools from Conditional Analysis we show that some results known in the…

Mathematical Finance · Quantitative Finance 2016-06-15 Julio Backhoff , Ulrich Horst

We study the stochastic versions of a broad class of combinatorial problems where the weights of the elements in the input dataset are uncertain. The class of problems that we study includes shortest paths, minimum weight spanning trees,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-11-18 Jian Li , Amol Deshpande

When machine learning is outsourced to a rational agent, conflicts of interest might arise and severely impact predictive performance. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for incentive-aware delegation of machine learning…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-12-07 Eden Saig , Inbal Talgam-Cohen , Nir Rosenfeld

A principal contracts with an agent through an informed delegate. Although the principal cannot directly mediate the interaction, she can restrict the menus of contracts the delegate may offer. We characterize the outcomes implementable…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-22 João Thereze , Udayan Vaidya

Submodular functions are an important class of functions in combinatorial optimization which satisfy the natural properties of decreasing marginal costs. The study of these functions has led to strong structural properties with applications…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2009-11-13 Gagan Goel , Pushkar Tripathi , Lei Wang

We show that for several variations of partially observable Markov decision processes, polynomial-time algorithms for finding control policies are unlikely to or simply don't have guarantees of finding policies within a constant factor or a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2011-06-02 J. Goldsmith , C. Lusena , M. Mundhenk

In dynamic mechanism design literature, one critical aspect has been typically ignored-the agents' periodic participation, which they can adapt and plan strategically. We propose a framework for dynamic principal-multiagent problems,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2023-06-16 Tao Zhang , Quanyan Zhu

We consider the robust contract design problem when the principal only has limited information about the actions the agent can take. The principal evaluates a contract according to its worst-case performance caused by the uncertain action…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2024-06-18 Bo Peng , Zhihao Gavin Tang

We study the problem of selection in the context of Bayesian persuasion. We are given multiple agents with hidden values (or quality scores), to whom resources must be allocated by a welfare-maximizing decision-maker. An intermediary with…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-11-18 Yannan Bai , Kamesh Munagala , Yiheng Shen , Davidson Zhu

Submodular maximization is a general optimization problem with a wide range of applications in machine learning (e.g., active learning, clustering, and feature selection). In large-scale optimization, the parallel running time of an…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-04-11 Matthew Fahrbach , Vahab Mirrokni , Morteza Zadimoghaddam

We consider the problem of allocating indivisible goods fairly among n agents who have additive and submodular valuations for the goods. Our fairness guarantees are in terms of the maximin share, that is defined to be the maximum value that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2020-04-07 Siddharth Barman , Sanath Kumar Krishnamurthy