A system is provided for allocating downlink transmit power in a wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. During operation, the system identifies a set of receivers for receiving signals from one or more transmitters on a same time-frequency slot, receives channel state information (CSI) for communication channels between the identified receivers and the transmitters, and constructs a precoder based on the CSI. The system further derives a set of power-scale factors for the precoder based on a utility function associated with the identified receivers such that the power-scale factors optimize the utility function. A respective power-scale factor scales power transmitted to a corresponding receiver.