English
Related papers

Related papers: Mechanism Design with Spiteful Agents

200 papers

We study inverse mechanism learning: recovering an unknown incentive-generating mechanism from observed strategic interaction traces of self-interested learning agents. Unlike inverse game theory and multi-agent inverse reinforcement…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Zhiyu An , Wan Du

Consider the problem of assigning indivisible objects to agents with strict ordinal preferences over objects, where each agent is interested in consuming at most one object, and objects have integer minimum and maximum quotas. We define an…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2020-12-22 Marek Bojko

We consider a combinatorial auction model where preferences of agents over bundles of objects and payments need not be quasilinear. However, we restrict the preferences of agents to be dichotomous. An agent with dichotomous preference…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2022-02-22 Komal Malik , Debasis Mishra

In some agent designs like inverse reinforcement learning an agent needs to learn its own reward function. Learning the reward function and optimising for it are typically two different processes, usually performed at different stages. We…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2020-04-29 Stuart Armstrong , Jan Leike , Laurent Orseau , Shane Legg

We consider the task of allocating indivisible items to agents, when the agents' preferences over the items are identical. The preferences are captured by means of a directed acyclic graph, with vertices representing items and an edge…

Discrete Mathematics · Computer Science 2024-02-02 Nina Chiarelli , Clément Dallard , Andreas Darmann , Stefan Lendl , Martin Milanič , Peter Muršič , Ulrich Pferschy

The maximization of submodular functions is an NP-Hard problem for certain subclasses of functions, for which a simple greedy algorithm has been shown to guarantee a solution whose quality is within 1/2 of the optimal. When this algorithm…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-01-11 David Grimsman , Mohd. Shabbir Ali , João P. Hespanha , Jason R. Marden

We propose a multi-agent multi-armed bandit (MA-MAB) framework aimed at ensuring fair outcomes across agents while maximizing overall system performance. A key challenge in this setting is decision-making under limited information about arm…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-01-28 Tianyi Xu , Jiaxin Liu , Nicholas Mattei , Zizhan Zheng

In practice, incentive providers (i.e., principals) often cannot observe the reward realizations of incentivized agents, which is in contrast to many principal-agent models that have been previously studied. This information asymmetry…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2023-08-15 Ilgin Dogan , Zuo-Jun Max Shen , Anil Aswani

In assignment problems, the rank distribution of assigned objects is often used to evaluate match quality. Rank-minimizing (RM) mechanisms directly optimize for average rank. While appealing, a drawback is RM mechanisms are not…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2024-06-19 Peter Troyan

Many allocation problems in multiagent systems rely on agents specifying cardinal preferences. However, allocation mechanisms can be sensitive to small perturbations in cardinal preferences, thus causing agents who make ``small" or…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-07-13 Vijay Menon , Kate Larson

Algorithmic decision making systems are ubiquitous across a wide variety of online as well as offline services. These systems rely on complex learning methods and vast amounts of data to optimize the service functionality, satisfaction of…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2017-03-27 Muhammad Bilal Zafar , Isabel Valera , Manuel Gomez Rodriguez , Krishna P. Gummadi

We study the consequences of information asymmetries and misaligned incentives in settings with multiple independent agents. We model an interaction between a Sender, who holds vital private information but cannot act, and a Receiver, who…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2026-05-13 Nanda Kishore Sreenivas , Kate Larson

We consider the provision of an abstract service to single-dimensional agents. Our model includes position auctions, single-minded combinatorial auctions, and constrained matching markets. When the agents' values are drawn from a…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2012-12-18 Nikhil R. Devanur , Jason D. Hartline , Qiqi Yan

Motivated by online retail, we consider the problem of selling one item (e.g., an ad slot) to two non-excludable buyers (say, a merchant and a brand). This problem captures, for example, situations where a merchant and a brand cooperatively…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-05-26 Gagan Aggarwal , Ashwinkumar Badanidiyuru , Paul Dütting , Federico Fusco

We study the mechanism design problem of selling $k$ items to unit-demand buyers with private valuations for the items. A buyer either participates directly in the auction or is represented by an intermediary, who represents a subset of…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2021-11-23 Gagan Aggarwal , Kshipra Bhawalkar , Guru Guruganesh , Andres Perlroth

We study mechanism design with predictions for the obnoxious facility location problem. We present deterministic strategyproof mechanisms that display tradeoffs between robustness and consistency on segments, squares, circles and trees. All…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2025-07-17 Gabriel Istrate , Cosmin Bonchis

We study incentive design when multiple principals simultaneously design mechanisms for their respective teams in environments with strategic spillovers. In this environment, each principal's set of incentive-compatible mechanisms--those…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-05-11 Brian Roberson

We study allocation mechanisms that utilize costly signaling as a screening tool. A social planner aims to maximize social welfare, defined as the weighted sum of agents' utilities, while implementing a specific allocation rule. Within a…

Theoretical Economics · Economics 2026-03-04 Yingkai Li , Xiaoyun Qiu

Using AI approaches to automatically design mechanisms has been a central research mission at the interface of AI and economics [Conitzer and Sandholm, 2002]. Previous approaches that attempt to design revenue optimal auctions for the…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-05-04 Weiran Shen , Pingzhong Tang , Song Zuo

We consider a monopolist seller facing a single buyer with additive valuations over n heterogeneous, independent items. It is known that in this important setting optimal mechanisms may require randomization [HR12], use menus of infinite…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2015-11-17 Aviad Rubinstein