2015/08/14 by Brandl, Florian, Brandt, Felix, Hofbauer, Johannes
#Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Multiagent Systems (cs.MA)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1508.03538
We consider randomized mechanisms with optional participation. Preferences over lotteries are modeled using skew-symmetric bilinear (SSB) utility functions, a generalization of classic von Neumann-Morgenstern utility functions. We show that every welfare-maximizing mechanism entices participation and that the converse holds under additional assumptions. Two important corollaries of our results are characterizations of an attractive randomized voting rule that satisfies Condorcet-consistency and entices participation. This stands in contrast to a well-known result by Moulin (1988), who proves that no deterministic voting rule can satisfy both properties simultaneously.