Coordination, Differentiation and Fairness in a population of cooperating agents

TL;DR

This paper investigates how additional resources for highly-connected agents influence cooperation fairness and network structure, analyzing whether they promote fairer load sharing or further imbalance.

Contribution

It introduces a model variant where highly-connected agents have extra resources and examines their impact on cooperation fairness and network dynamics.

Findings

Additional resources can lead to fairer load distribution.

Resources may also promote the formation of new collaborations.

The outcome depends on how resources are invested by agents.

Abstract

In a recent paper, we analyzed the self-assembly of a complex cooperation network. The network was shown to approach a state where every agent invests the same amount of resources. Nevertheless, highly-connected agents arise that extract extraordinarily high payoffs while contributing comparably little to any of their cooperations. Here, we investigate a variant of the model, in which highly-connected agents have access to additional resources. We study analytically and numerically whether these resources are invested in existing collaborations, leading to a fairer load distribution, or in establishing new collaborations, leading to an even less fair distribution of loads and payoffs.