Leveled-Commitment Contracting: A Backtracking Instrument for Multiagent Systems

In (automated) negotiation systems for self-interested agents, contracts have traditionally been binding. The level of commitment is set by decommitting penalties. To be freed from the contract, an agent simply pays its penalty to the other contract party(ies). We show that despite such strategic decommitting, leveled commitment increases the expected payoffs of all contract parties and can enable deals that are impossible under full commitment.