Social exchange networks with distant bargaining.

Network bargaining is a natural extension of the classical, 2-player Nash bargaining solution to the network setting. Here one is given an exchange network G connecting a set of players V in which edges correspond to potential contracts between their endpoints. In the standard model, a player may engage in at most one contract, and feasible outcomes therefore correspond to matchings in the underlying graph. Kleinberg and Tardos [STOC'08] recently proposed this model, and introduced the concepts of stability and balance for feasible outcomes. The authors characterized the class of instances that admit such solutions, and presented a polynomial-time algorithm to compute them.