A NOTE ON CONFLICT-RESOLUTION AND TRUTHTELLING

Many recent contributions in the OR literature have been concerned with the resolution of multiple person conflicts. It is often suggested, that in a first phase the disputants should clarify and signal their individual desires and in a second phase these desires should be used in a mediation process in which individual desires are compromised. The aim of this note is to argue that the second phase must be designed in such a way that the parties have proper incentives to reveal their true preferences in the first phase. To illustrate this perspective. we investigate under which circumstances a recent conflict resolution methodology presented by F.A. Lootsma in 1989 may induce truthful revelation of preferences.