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Related papers: Welfare and Beyond in Multi-Agent Contracts

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A proper mechanism design can help federated learning (FL) to achieve good social welfare by coordinating self-interested clients through the learning process. However, existing mechanisms neglect the network effects of client…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-08-26 Xiang Li , Yuan Luo , Bing Luo , Jianwei Huang

Motivated by a plethora of practical examples where bias is induced by automated-decision making algorithms, there has been strong recent interest in the design of fair algorithms. However, there is often a dichotomy between fairness and…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2023-07-13 April Niu , Agnes Totschnig , Adrian Vetta

In this paper, we consider dynamic multi-agent systems (MAS) for decentralized resource allocation. The MAS operates at a competitive equilibrium to ensure supply and demand are balanced. First, we investigate the MAS over a finite horizon.…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2022-10-21 Zeinab Salehi , Yijun Chen , Elizabeth L. Ratnam , Ian R. Petersen , Guodong Shi

We study a bilevel \emph{max-max} optimization framework for principal-agent contract design, in which a principal chooses incentives to maximize utility while anticipating the agent's best response. This problem, central to moral hazard…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-10-27 Tomer Galanti , Aarya Bookseller , Korok Ray

Applications such as employees sharing office spaces over a workweek can be modeled as problems where agents are matched to resources over multiple rounds. Agents' requirements limit the set of compatible resources and the rounds in which…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2022-12-01 Yohai Trabelsi , Abhijin Adiga , Sarit Kraus , S. S. Ravi , Daniel J. Rosenkrantz

We study the problem of allocating indivisible items on a path among agents. The objective is to find a fair and efficient allocation in which each agent's bundle forms a contiguous block on the line. We say that an instance is \emph{$(a,…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-01-14 Yasushi Kawase , Bodhayan Roy , Mohammad Azharuddin Sanpui

We introduce a new model of combinatorial contracts in which a principal delegates the execution of a costly task to an agent. To complete the task, the agent can take any subset of a given set of unobservable actions, each of which has an…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-09-03 Paul Duetting , Tomer Ezra , Michal Feldman , Thomas Kesselheim

In this paper, we address three Principal--Agent problems in a moral hazard context and show that they are connected. We start by studying the problem of Principal with multiple Agents in cooperation. The term cooperation is manifested here…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-10-23 Mao Fabrice Djete

A principal who values an object allocates it to one or more agents. Agents learn private information (signals) from an information designer about the allocation payoff to the principal. Monetary transfer is not available but the principal…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-10-31 Yi-Chun Chen , Gaoji Hu , Xiangqian Yang

The classic house allocation problem is primarily concerned with finding a matching between a set of agents and a set of houses that guarantees some notion of economic efficiency (e.g. utilitarian welfare). While recent works have shifted…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-07-08 Hadi Hosseini , Medha Kumar , Sanjukta Roy

Schelling's model considers $k$ types of agents each of whom needs to select a vertex on an undirected graph, where every agent prefers to neighbor agents of the same type. We are motivated by a recent line of work that studies solutions…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-01-19 Argyrios Deligkas , Eduard Eiben , Tiger-Lily Goldsmith

Category-based coordination mechanisms allocate resources by mapping a declared service category to a fixed resource profile, without observing individual demand types. We establish three results for this class of mechanisms. First, the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-08 Joss Armstrong

We study fair and efficient allocation of divisible goods, in an online manner, among $n$ agents. The goods arrive online in a sequence of $T$ time periods. The agents' values for a good are revealed only after its arrival, and the online…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-09-03 Siddharth Barman , Arindam Khan , Arnab Maiti

We study coverage problems in which, for a set of agents and a given threshold $T$, the goal is to select $T$ subsets (of the agents) that, while satisfying combinatorial constraints, achieve fair and efficient coverage among the agents. In…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2022-07-06 Siddharth Barman , Anand Krishna , Y. Narahari , Soumyarup Sadhukhan

In many real-world applications of reinforcement learning (RL), deployed policies have varied impacts on different stakeholders, creating challenges in reaching consensus on how to effectively aggregate their preferences. Generalized…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-07-17 Cheol Woo Kim , Jai Moondra , Shresth Verma , Madeleine Pollack , Lingkai Kong , Milind Tambe , Swati Gupta

We study the question of dividing a collection of indivisible goods amongst a set of agents. The main objective of research in the area is to achieve one of two goals: fairness or efficiency. On the fairness side, envy-freeness is the…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-06-03 Vishnu V. Narayan , Mashbat Suzuki , Adrian Vetta

It is often argued that an agent making decisions on behalf of two or more principals who have different utility functions should adopt a {\em Pareto-optimal} policy, i.e., a policy that cannot be improved upon for one agent without making…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2017-11-02 Andrew Critch , Stuart Russell

We study the problem of fairly assigning a set of discrete tasks (or chores) among a set of agents with additive valuations. Each chore is associated with a start and finish time, and each agent can perform at most one chore at any given…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-05-06 Sarfaraz Equbal , Rohit Gurjar , Yatharth Kumar , Swaprava Nath , Raghuvansh Saxena , Rohit Vaish

Many multiagent systems rely on collective decision-making among self-interested agents, which raises deep questions about coalition formation and stability. We study social choice with endogenous, outcome-contingent transfers, where agents…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-01-23 Joshua Kavner

From social networks to supply chains, more and more aspects of how humans, firms and organizations interact is mediated by artificial learning agents. As the influence of machine learning systems grows, it is paramount that we study how to…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2022-11-02 Andrea Tacchetti , DJ Strouse , Marta Garnelo , Thore Graepel , Yoram Bachrach