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Allocation games are zero-sum games that model the distribution of resources among multiple agents. In this paper, we explore the interplay between an \textit{subjective identity} and its impact on notions of fairness in allocation. The…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-07-08 Janvi Chhabra , Jayati Deshmukh , Arpitha Malavalli , Karthik Sama , Srinath Srinivasa

We consider a moral hazard problem with multiple principals in a continuous-time model. The agent can only work exclusively for one principal at a given time, so faces an optimal switching problem. Using a randomized formulation, we manage…

Probability · Mathematics 2022-09-14 Kaitong Hu , Zhenjie Ren , Junjian Yang

This paper explores the capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to autonomously design incentive-compatible contracts in dual-principal-agent settings, a relatively unexplored aspect of algorithmic mechanism design. We develop a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2024-06-14 Qian Qi

Algorithmic fairness in recommender systems requires close attention to the needs of a diverse set of stakeholders that may have competing interests. Previous work in this area has often been limited by fixed, single-objective definitions…

Information Retrieval · Computer Science 2024-10-08 Amanda Aird , Elena Štefancová , Cassidy All , Amy Voida , Martin Homola , Nicholas Mattei , Robin Burke

We present a continuous-time contract whereby a top-level player can incentivize a hierarchy of players below him to act in his best interest despite only observing the output of his direct subordinate. This paper extends Sannikov's…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2015-11-25 Christopher W. Miller , Insoon Yang

Coordination is often critical to forming prosocial behaviors -- behaviors that increase the overall sum of rewards received by all agents in a multi-agent game. However, state of the art reinforcement learning algorithms often suffer from…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2021-05-17 Woodrow Z. Wang , Mark Beliaev , Erdem Bıyık , Daniel A. Lazar , Ramtin Pedarsani , Dorsa Sadigh

When the federated learning is adopted among competitive agents with siloed datasets, agents are self-interested and participate only if they are fairly rewarded. To encourage the application of federated learning, this paper employs a…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2020-05-04 Jingfeng Zhang , Cheng Li , Antonio Robles-Kelly , Mohan Kankanhalli

This paper considers the hidden-action model of the principal-agent problem, in which a principal incentivizes an agent to work on a project using a contract. We investigate whether contracts with bounded payments are learnable and…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-02-23 Yurong Chen , Zhaohua Chen , Xiaotie Deng , Zhiyi Huang

A principal contracts with an agent who sequentially searches over projects to generate a prize. The principal initially knows only one of the agent's available projects and evaluates a contract by its worst-case performance. We…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-09-17 Théo Durandard , Udayan Vaidya , Boli Xu

Multi-agent systems are trained to maximize shared cost objectives, which typically reflect system-level efficiency. However, in the resource-constrained environments of mobility and transportation systems, efficiency may be achieved at the…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2024-10-30 Jasmine Jerry Aloor , Siddharth Nayak , Sydney Dolan , Hamsa Balakrishnan

We propose a game-theoretic framework that incorporates both incomplete information and general ambiguity attitudes on factors external to all players. Our starting point is players' preferences on payoff-distribution vectors, essentially…

Economics · Quantitative Finance 2017-04-04 Jian Yang

We study a multi-agent contracting problem where agents exert costly effort to achieve individually observable binary outcomes. While the principal can theoretically extract the full social welfare using a discriminatory contract that…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2026-02-13 Johannes Brustle , Paul Duetting , Stefano Leonardi , Tomasz Ponitka , Matteo Russo

The increasing deployment of AI is shaping the future landscape of the internet, which is set to become an integrated ecosystem of AI agents. Orchestrating the interaction among AI agents necessitates decentralized, self-sustaining…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2024-10-08 Dima Ivanov , Paul Dütting , Inbal Talgam-Cohen , Tonghan Wang , David C. Parkes

We study a continuous time contracting model in which a principal hires a risk averse agent to manage a project over a finite horizon and provides sequential payments whose timing is endogenously determined. The resulting nonzero-sum…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2025-12-01 Guillermo Alonso Alvarez , Ibrahim Ekren , Liwei Huang

Agent-based models provide a constructive approach to studying emergent dynamics in life-like systems composed of interacting, adaptive agents. Financial markets serve as a canonical example of such systems, where collective price dynamics…

Computational Finance · Quantitative Finance 2026-04-28 Ryuji Hashimoto , Ryosuke Takata , Masahiro Suzuki , Yuki Tanaka , Kiyoshi Izumi

Understanding and predicting the behavior of large-scale multi-agents in games remains a fundamental challenge in multi-agent systems. This paper examines the role of heterogeneity in equilibrium formation by analyzing how smooth…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-07-24 Die Hu , Shuyue Hu , Chunjiang Mu , Shiqi Fan , Chen Chu , Jinzhuo Liu , Zhen Wang

Previous research has highlighted the importance of strong heterogeneity for the successful evolution of cooperation in games governed by pairwise interactions. Here we determine to what extent this is true for games governed by group…

Physics and Society · Physics 2011-12-21 Matjaz Perc

Multi-agent systems have demonstrated the ability to improve performance on a variety of predictive tasks by leveraging collaborative decision making. However, the lack of effective evaluation methodologies has made it difficult to estimate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2025-12-19 Maeve Madigan , Parameswaran Kamalaruban , Glenn Moynihan , Tom Kempton , David Sutton , Stuart Burrell

We study the self-assembly of a complex network of collaborations among self-interested agents. The agents can maintain different levels of cooperation with different partners. Further, they continuously, selectively, and independently…

Physics and Society · Physics 2015-05-13 Anne-Ly Do , Lars Rudolf , Thilo Gross

We introduce a novel model of contracts with combinatorial actions that accounts for sequential and adaptive agent behavior. As in the standard model, a principal delegates the execution of a costly project to an agent. There are $n$…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-04-22 Tomer Ezra , Michal Feldman , Maya Schlesinger