Computation and incentives in combinatorial public projects

Abstract

The Combinatorial Public Projects Problem (CPPP) is an abstraction of resource allocation problems in which agents have preferences over alternatives, and an outcome that is to be collectively shared by the agents is chosen so as to maximize the social welfare. We explore CPPP from both computational perspective and a mechanism design perspective. We examine CPPP in the hierarchy of complement free (subadditive) valuation classes and present positive and negative results for both unrestricted and truthful algorithms.