Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2601.07763

Structural Approach to Guiding a Present-Biased Agent

Tatiana Belova·Yuriy Dementiev·Artur Ignatiev·Danil Sagunov
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Time-inconsistent behavior, such as procrastination or abandonment of long-term goals, arises when agents evaluate immediate outcomes disproportionately higher than future ones. This leads to globally suboptimal behavior, where plans are frequently revised or abandoned entirely. In the influential model of Kleinberg and Oren (2014) such behavior is modeled by a present-biased agent navigating a task graph toward a goal, making locally optimal decisions at each step based on discounted future costs. As a result, the agent may repeatedly deviate from initial plans. Recent work by Belova et al. (2024) introduced a two-agent extension of this model, where a fully-aware principal attempts to guide the present-biased agent through a specific set of critical tasks without causing abandonment. This captures a rich class of principal-agent dynamics in behavioral settings. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive algorithmic characterization of this problem. We analyze its computational complexity through the framework of parameterized algorithms, focusing on graph parameters that naturally emerge in this setting, such as treewidth, vertex cover, and feedback vertex set. Our main result is a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm when parameterized by the treewidth of the task graph and the number of distinct (v,t)-path costs. Our algorithm encaptures several input settings, such as bounded edge costs and restricted task graph structure. We demonstrate that our main result yields efficient algorithms for a number of such configurations. We complement this with tight hardness results, that highlight the extreme difficulty of the problem even on simplest graphs with bounded number of nodes and constant parameter values, and motivate our choice of parameters. We delineate tractable and intractable regions of the problem landscape, which include answers to open questions of Belova et al. (2024).

Explore related subjects

cs.GT

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Tatiana Belova, Yuriy Dementiev, Artur Ignatiev, Danil Sagunov. 2026-01-12. Structural Approach to Guiding a Present-Biased Agent. https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07763

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Ascending Auctions for Combinatorial Markets with Frictions: A Unified Framework via Discrete Convex Analysis

We develop a unified ascending-auction framework for computing Walrasian equilibria in combinatorial markets with strong substitutes valuations and piecewise-linear payment functions. Our auction extends the celebrated ascending auctions of Gul and Stacchetti (2000) and Ausubel (2006) to accommodate payment frictions (e.g., transaction taxes or commission fees). This is achieved by incorporating directional price updates that reflect heterogeneous payment structures. Our framework also generalizes the unit-demand imperfectly transferable utility models of Alkan (1989, 1992) to a fully combinatorial setting, thereby unifying these paradigms. Furthermore, this is the first study to compute the minimum -- also known as the buyer-optimal -- equilibrium in combinatorial markets with such frictions. Our analysis builds upon discrete convex analysis. Our main technical contribution is a characterization of valid price-update directions, together with a strongly polynomial-time algorithm for computing them. Notably, the algorithm uses only demand- and exchange-oracle queries and never requires handling information of exponential size. To compute such a direction, we formulate a lexicographic extension of the polymatroid sum problem and characterize its dual solution via a reduction to a convex flow problem. Exploiting the $\text{L}^\natural$-convexity of the dual objective, we show that the desired direction can be constructed from the minimal dual solution. This convexity also yields transparent economic and potential-based interpretations of the auction dynamics, strengthening the connection between ascending auctions and discrete optimization.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2026

Beyond Provenance: The Economics and Governance of Personalized AI Memory

Personalized AI memories, defined as persistent decision-relevant states distilled by platforms from long-run human-AI interaction, are increasingly portable, provenance-certifiable, and tradable. Provenance answers the question of origin, but it does not settle who holds which rights over a memory, nor how wider deployment affects its future supply. We develop a unified model in which memory use is non-rival, while refresh, the maintenance of continued validity, is relationally co-produced by the represented individual and the platform. Even assuming perfect provenance and complete information, the model still yields a set of inherent limitations. First, there is an extraction ceiling: decision value is bounded by lived experience. Second, a rights-separation theorem shows that no budget-balanced ownership assignment can make both co-producers residual claimants, and that control rights and cash-flow rights operate on distinct margins. Third, a depletion result indicates that reach-expanding policies such as portability, interoperability, and competition raise current access but shrink the long-run memory stock. Fourth, we offer a formal comparison between memory ownership as it ought to be (subject-held) and as it is (platform-held); the welfare ranking reduces to two measurable quantities, both dominated by interior renewable-claim bundles. Finally, endogenous-quality and market-formation results show that uncompensated markets pollute their own raw material, that transparency and compensation are complements, and that the de facto platform-ownership regime is self-perpetuating. On the design side, the analysis points to separated provenance, performance, and permission credentials; compensation indexed to quality-deployment; and portability and salience, rather than nominal ownership, as the binding policy margins.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2026

How Can Incentives and Cut Layer Selection Influence Data Contribution in Split Federated Learning?

To alleviate the training burden in federated learning while enhancing convergence speed, Split Federated Learning (SFL) has emerged as a promising approach by combining the advantages of federated and split learning. However, despite its advantages, existing SFL studies have largely overlooked the strategic interactions among self-interested participants during the SFL process. In this framework, the SFL model owner can choose the cut layer to balance the training load between the server and clients, ensuring the necessary level of privacy for the clients. Additionally, the SFL model owner sets incentives to encourage client participation in the SFL process. The optimization strategies employed by the SFL model owner influence clients' decisions regarding the amount of data they contribute, taking into account the shared incentives over clients and anticipated energy consumption from both computation and networking during SFL. To address this framework, we model the problem using a hierarchical decision-making approach, formulated as a single-leader multi-follower Stackelberg game. We demonstrate the existence and uniqueness of the Nash equilibrium among clients and analyze the Stackelberg equilibrium by examining the leader's game. Furthermore, we discuss privacy concerns related to differential privacy and the criteria for selecting the minimum required cut layer. Our findings show that the Stackelberg equilibrium solution maximizes the utility for both the clients and the SFL model owner while achieving a well-balanced trade-off between model accuracy and the associated computing and networking overhead during the SFL process.

cs.GT↗