A Domain Theory for Task Oriented Negotiation

Abstract

We present a general theory that captures the relationship between certain domains and negotiation mechanisms. The analysis makes it possible to categorize precisely the kinds of domains in which agents find themselves, and to use the category to choose appropriate negotiation mechanisms. The theory presented here both generalizes previous results, and allows agent designers to characterize new domains accurately. The analysis thus serves as a critical step in using the theory of negotiation in realworld applications. We show that in certain Task Oriented Domains, there exist distributed consensus mechanisms with simple and stable strategies that lead to efficient outcomes, even when agents have incomplete information about their environment. We also present additional novel results, in particular that in concave domains using aU-or-nothing deals, no lying by an agent can be beneficial, and that in subadditive domains, there often exist beneficial decoy lies that do not require full information regarding the other agent's goals.