Decentralized method for computing Pareto solutions in multiparty negotiations

This paper presents a decentralized method for computing Pareto-optimal solutions in multiparty negotiations over continuous issues. The method is based on the well known weighting method which is decomposed by introducing an own decision variable for each decision maker and by applying the dual decomposition method to the resulting problem. The method offers a systematic way for generating some or all Pareto-optimal solutions so that decision makers do not have to know each others' value functions. Under the assumption of quasilinear value function the requirement that a decision maker knows the explicit form for his value function can be relaxed. In that case the decision maker is asked to solve a series of multiobjective programming problems where an additional artificial decision variable is introduced. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.