Avoiding strategic behaviors in the egalitarian social welfare under public resources and non-additive utilities

Abstract

In multi-agent resource allocation systems, it is reasonable that the specific allocation of resources depends on the utility functions declared by the different agents. However, this can easily lead to strategic behaviors in which the agents involved are interested in lying, since such lies can bring them more profitable deals. In this paper we analyze the case of egalitarian social welfare, where the objective is to maximize the utility of the agent who receives the least utility. In this context, agents can obtain advantages by undervaluing their preferences. Thus, we will see how to discourage such lies even in the presence of public goods and non-additive utilities. Likewise, we will use genetic algorithms to show, through experimental results, the robustness of our proposal against lies.