Proactive Incentive Regulation in Multi-Agent Systems with Environmental Feedback

Abstract

In environmental feedback systems, self-interested behaviors of rational agents often undermine cooperation and environmental sustainability. Although punitive incentive mechanisms are widely recognized as effective in addressing such social dilemmas, the timing of their implementation under different environmental conditions remains insufficiently understood. In this paper, we develop a multi-agent environmental feedback game framework with coupled incentive intensities across resource states. We investigate how system dynamics vary with incentive intensity under both resource-abundant and resource-scarce conditions. Theoretical analysis shows that imposing penalties in resource-abundant states can transform the system from a tragedy of the commons into a bistable regime that supports full cooperation. In contrast, imposing penalties in resource-scarce states leads to complex dynamical behaviors, including interior stability, heteroclinic cycles, and Hopf bifurcations, which hinder the emergence of stable cooperation. These results highlight the importance of timing in incentive regulation. Proactive intervention under favorable environmental conditions is more effective in sustaining cooperation than delayed enforcement after environmental degradation.