Stabilizing Welfare-Maximizing Decisions via Endogenous Transfers

Fuente: arXiv
Salvato in:
Dettagli Bibliografici
Autore principale: Kavner, Joshua
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
Soggetti:
Accesso online:
Tags: Aggiungi Tag
Nessun Tag, puoi essere il primo ad aggiungerne!!
_version_ 1866917216878854144
author Kavner, Joshua
author_facet Kavner, Joshua
contents 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 voluntarily form contracts that redistribute utility depending on the collective decision, allowing fully strategic, incentive-aligned coalition formation. We show that under consensus rules, individually rational strong Nash equilibria (IR-SNE) always exist, implementing welfare-maximizing outcomes with feasible transfers, and provide a simple, efficient algorithm to construct them. For more general anonymous, monotonic, and resolute rules, we identify necessary conditions for profitable deviations, sharply limiting destabilizing coalitions. By bridging cooperative and noncooperative perspectives, our approach shows that transferable utility can achieve core-like stability, restoring efficiency and budget balance even where classical impossibility results apply. Overall, this framework offers a practical and robust way to coordinate large-scale strategic multiagent systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_15563
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stabilizing Welfare-Maximizing Decisions via Endogenous Transfers
Kavner, Joshua
Theoretical Economics
Computer Science and Game Theory
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 voluntarily form contracts that redistribute utility depending on the collective decision, allowing fully strategic, incentive-aligned coalition formation. We show that under consensus rules, individually rational strong Nash equilibria (IR-SNE) always exist, implementing welfare-maximizing outcomes with feasible transfers, and provide a simple, efficient algorithm to construct them. For more general anonymous, monotonic, and resolute rules, we identify necessary conditions for profitable deviations, sharply limiting destabilizing coalitions. By bridging cooperative and noncooperative perspectives, our approach shows that transferable utility can achieve core-like stability, restoring efficiency and budget balance even where classical impossibility results apply. Overall, this framework offers a practical and robust way to coordinate large-scale strategic multiagent systems.
title Stabilizing Welfare-Maximizing Decisions via Endogenous Transfers
topic Theoretical Economics
Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15563