Fair item allocation

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Fair item allocation is a kind of the fair division problem in which the items to divide are discrete rather than continuous. The items have to be divided among several partners who potentially value them differently, and each item has to be given as a whole to a single person. [1] This situation arises in various real-life scenarios:

Contents

The indivisibility of the items implies that a fair division may not be possible. As an extreme example, if there is only a single item (e.g. a house), it must be given to a single partner, but this is not fair to the other partners. This is in contrast to the fair cake-cutting problem, where the dividend is divisible and a fair division always exists. In some cases, the indivisibility problem can be mitigated by introducing monetary payments or time-based rotation, or by discarding some of the items. [2] :285 But such solutions are not always available.

An item assignment problem has several ingredients:

  1. The partners have to express their preferences for the different item-bundles.
  2. The group should decide on a fairness criterion.
  3. Based on the preferences and the fairness criterion, a fair assignment algorithm should be executed to calculate a fair division.

These ingredients are explained in detail below.

Preferences

Combinatorial preferences

A naive way to determine the preferences is asking each partner to supply a numeric value for each possible bundle. For example, if the items to divide are a car and a bicycle, a partner may value the car as 800, the bicycle as 200, and the bundle {car, bicycle} as 900 (see Utility functions on indivisible goods for more examples). There are two problems with this approach:

  1. It may be difficult for a person to calculate exact numeric values to the bundles.
  2. The number of possible bundles can be huge: if there are items then there are possible bundles. For example, if there are 16 items then each partner will have to present their preferences using 65536 numbers.

The first problem motivates the use of ordinal utility rather than cardinal utility. In the ordinal model, each partner should only express a ranking over the different bundles, i.e., say which bundle is the best, which is the second-best, and so on. This may be easier than calculating exact numbers, but it is still difficult if the number of items is large.

The second problem is often handled by working with individual items rather than bundles:

Under suitable assumptions, it is possible to lift the preferences on items to preferences on bundles. [3] :44–48 Then, the agents report their valuations/rankings on individual items, and the algorithm calculates for them their valuations/rankings on bundles.

Additive preferences

To make the item-assignment problem simpler, it is common to assume that all items are independent goods (so they are not substitute goods nor complementary goods). [4] Then:

The additivity implies that each partner can always choose a "preferable item" from the set of items on the table, and this choice is independent of the other items that the partner may have. This property is used by some fair assignment algorithms that will be described next. [2] :287–288

Compact preference representation languages

Compact preference representation languages have been developed as a compromise between the full expressiveness of combinatorial preferences to the simplicity of additive preferences. They provide a succinct representation to some natural classes of utility functions that are more general than additive utilities (but not as general as combinatorial utilities). Some examples are: [2] :289–294

Fairness criteria

Individual guarantee criteria

An individual guarantee criterion is a criterion that should hold for each individual partner, as long as the partner truthfully reports his preferences. Five such criteria are presented below. They are ordered from the weakest to the strongest (assuming the valuations are additive): [7]

Maximin share

The maximin-share (also called: max-min-fair-share guarantee) of an agent is the most preferred bundle he could guarantee himself as divider in divide and choose against adversarial opponents. An allocation is called MMS-fair if every agent receives a bundle that he weakly prefers over his MMS. [8]

Proportional fair-share (PFS)

The proportional-fair-share of an agent is 1/n of his utility from the entire set of items. An allocation is called proportional if every agent receives a bundle worth at least his proportional-fair-share.

Min-max fair-share (mFS)

The min-max-fair-share of an agent is the minimal utility that she can hope to get from an allocation if all the other agents have the same preferences as her, when she always receives the best share. It is also the minimal utility that an agent can get for sure in the allocation game “Someone cuts, I choose first”. An allocation is mFS-fair if all agents receive a bundle that they weakly prefer over their mFS. [7] mFS-fairness can be described as the result of the following negotiation process. A certain allocation is suggested. Each agent can object to it by demanding that a different allocation be made by another agent, letting him choose first. Hence, an agent would object to an allocation only if in all partitions, there is a bundle that he strongly prefers over his current bundle. An allocation is mFS-fair iff no agent objects to it, i.e., for every agent there exists a partition in which all bundles are weakly worse than his current share.

For every agent with subadditive utility, the mFS is worth at least. Hence, every mFS-fair allocation is proportional. For every agent with superadditive utility, the MMSis worth at most. Hence, every proportional allocation is MMS-fair. Both inclusions are strict, even when every agent has additive utility. This is illustrated in the following example: [7]

There are three agents and three items:
  • Alice values the items as 2,2,2. For her, MMS=PFS=mFS=2.
  • Bob values the items as 3,2,1. For him, MMS=1, PFS=2 and mFS=3.
  • Carl values the items as 3,2,1. For him, MMS=1, PFS=2 and mFS=3.
The possible allocations are as follows:
  • Every allocation which gives an item to each agent is MMS-fair.
  • Every allocation which gives the first and second items to Bob and Carl and the third item to Alice is proportional.
  • No allocation is mFS-fair.

The above implications do not hold when the agents' valuations are not sub/superadditive. [9]

Envy-freeness (EF)

Every agent weakly prefers his own bundle to any other bundle. Every envy-free allocation of all items is mFS-fair; this follows directly from the ordinal definitions and does not depend on additivity. If the valuations are additive, then an EF allocation is also proportional and MMS-fair. Otherwise, an EF allocation may be not proportional and even not MMS. [9] See envy-free item assignment for more details.

Competitive equilibrium from Equal Incomes (CEEI)

This criterion is based on the following argument: the allocation process should be considered as a search for an equilibrium between the supply (the set of objects, each one having a public price) and the demand (the agents’ desires, each agent having the same budget for buying the objects). A competitive equilibrium is reached when the supply matches the demand. The fairness argument is straightforward: prices and budgets are the same for everyone. CEEI implies EF regardless of additivity. When the agents' preferences are additive and strict (each bundle has a different value), CEEI implies Pareto efficiency. [7]

Several recently suggested fairness criteria are: [10]

Envy-freeness-except-1 (EF1)

For each two agents A and B, if we remove from the bundle of B the item most valuable for A, then A does not envy B (in other words, the "envy level" of A in B is at most the value of a single item). Under monotonicity, an EF1 allocation always exists.

Envy-freeness-except-cheapest (EFx)

For each two agents A and B, if we remove from the bundle of B the item least valuable for A, then A does not envy B. EFx is strictly stronger than EF1. It is not known whether EFx allocations always exist.

Global optimization criteria

A global optimization criterion evaluates a division based on a given social welfare function:

An advantage of global optimization criteria over individual criteria is that welfare-maximizing allocations are Pareto efficient.

Allocation algorithms

Various algorithms for fair item allocation are surveyed in pages on specific fairness criteria:

Variants and extensions

Different entitlements

In this variant, different agents are entitled to different fractions of the resource. A common use-case is dividing cabinet ministries among parties in the coalition. [14] It is common to assume that each party should receive ministries according to the number of seats it has in the parliament. The various fairness notions have to be adapted accordingly. Several classes of fairness notions were considered:

Allocation to groups

In this variant, bundles are given not to individual agents but to groups of agents. Common use-cases are: dividing inheritance among families, or dividing facilities among departments in a university. All agents in the same group consume the same bundle, though they may value it differently. The classic item allocation setting corresponds to the special case in which all groups are singletons.

With groups, it may be impossible to guarantee unanimous fairness (fairness in the eyes of all agents in each group), so it is often relaxed to democratic fairness (fairness in the eyes of e.g. at least half the agents in each group). [21]

Allocation of public goods

In this variant, each item provides utility not only to a single agent but to all agents. Different agents may attribute different utilities to the same item. The group has to choose a subset of items satisfying some constraints, for example:

Allocation of private goods can be seen as a special case of allocating public goods: given a private-goods problem with n agents and m items, where agent i values item j at vij, construct a public-goods problem with n*m items, where agent i values each item i,j at vij, and the other items at 0. Item i,j essentially represents the decision to give item j to agent i. This idea can be formalized to show a general reduction from private-goods allocation to public-goods allocation that retains the maximum Nash welfare allocation, as well as a similar reduction that retains the leximin optimal allocation. [22]

Common solution concepts for public goods allocation are core stability (which implies both Pareto-efficiency and proportionality), [23] maximum Nash welfare, leximin optimality and proportionality up to one item. [22]

Public decision making

In this variant, several agents have to accept decisions on several issues. A common use-case is a family that has to decide what activity to do each day (here each issue is a day). Each agent assigns different utilities to the various options in each issue. The classic item allocation setting corresponds to the special case in which each issue corresponds to an item, each decision option corresponds to giving that item to a particular agent, and the agents' utilities are zero for all options in which the item is given to someone else. In this case, proportionality means that the utility of each agent is at least 1/n of his "dictatorship utility", i.e., the utility he could get by picking the best option in each issue. Proportionality might be unattainable, but PROP1 is attainable by Round-robin item allocation. [24]

Repeated allocation

Often, the same items are allocated repeatedly. For example, recurring house chores. If the number of repetitions is a multiple of the number of agents, then it is possible to find in polynomial time a sequence of allocations that is envy-free and complete, and to find in exponential time a sequence that is proportional and Pareto-optimal. But, an envy-free and Pareto-optimal sequence may not exist. With two agents, if the number of repetitions is even, it is always possible to find a sequence that is envy-free and Pareto-optimal. [25]

Stochastic allocations of indivisible goods

Stochastic allocations of indivisible goods [26] is a type of fair item allocation in which a solution describes a probability distribution over the set of deterministic allocations.

Assume that items should be distributed between agents. Formally, in the deterministic setting, a solution describes a feasible allocation of the items to the agents — a partition of the set of items into subsets (one for each agent). The set of all deterministic allocations can be described as follows:

In the stochastic setting, a solution is a probability distribution over the set . That is, the set of all stochastic allocations (i.e., all feasible solutions to the problem) can be described as follows:

There are two functions related to each agent, a utility function associated with a deterministic allocation  ; and an expected utility function associated with a stochastic allocation which defined according to as follows:

Fairness criteria

The same criteria that are suggested for deterministic setting can also be considered in the stochastic setting:

  • Utilitarian rule: this rule says that society should choose the solution that maximize the sum of utilities. That is, to choose a stochastic allocation that maximizes the utilitarian walfare: Kawase and Sumita [26] show that maximization of the utilitarian welfare in the stochastic setting can always be achieved with a deterministic allocation. The reason is that the utilitarian value of the deterministic allocation is at least the utilitarian value of :
  • Egalitarian rule: this rule says that society should choose the solution that maximize the utility of the poorest. That is, to choose a stochastic allocation that maximizes the egalitarian walfare: In contrast to the utilitarian rule, here, the stochastic setting allows society to achieve higher value [26] — as an example, consider the case where are two identical agents and only one item that worth 100. It is easy to see that in the deterministic setting the egalitarian value is , while in the stochastic setting it is .
    • Hardness: Kawase and Sumita [26] prove that finding a stochastic allocation that maximizes the eqalitarian welfare is NP-hard even when agents' utilities are all budget-additive; and also, that it is NP-hard to approximate the eqalitarian welfare to a factor better than even when all agents have the same submodular utility function.
    • Algorithm: Kawase and Sumita [26] present an algorithm that, given an algorithm for finding a deterministic allocation that approximates the utilitarian welfare to a factor , finds a stochastic allocation that approximates the egalitarian welfare to the same factor .

See also

Related Research Articles

Envy-freeness, also known as no-envy, is a criterion for fair division. It says that, when resources are allocated among people with equal rights, each person should receive a share that is, in their eyes, at least as good as the share received by any other agent. In other words, no person should feel envy.

Efficiency and fairness are two major goals of welfare economics. Given a set of resources and a set of agents, the goal is to divide the resources among the agents in a way that is both Pareto efficient (PE) and envy-free (EF). The goal was first defined by David Schmeidler and Menahem Yaari. Later, the existence of such allocations has been proved under various conditions.

Rental harmony is a kind of a fair division problem in which indivisible items and a fixed monetary cost have to be divided simultaneously. The housemates problem and room-assignment-rent-division are alternative names to the same problem.

Fisher market is an economic model attributed to Irving Fisher. It has the following ingredients:

Resource monotonicity is a principle of fair division. It says that, if there are more resources to share, then all agents should be weakly better off; no agent should lose from the increase in resources. The RM principle has been studied in various division problems.

Envy-free (EF) item allocation is a fair item allocation problem, in which the fairness criterion is envy-freeness - each agent should receive a bundle that they believe to be at least as good as the bundle of any other agent.

Approximate Competitive Equilibrium from Equal Incomes (A-CEEI) is a procedure for fair item assignment. It was developed by Eric Budish.

Truthful resource allocation is the problem of allocating resources among agents with different valuations over the resources, such that agents are incentivized to reveal their true valuations over the resources.

Maximin share (MMS) is a criterion of fair item allocation. Given a set of items with different values, the 1-out-of-n maximin-share is the maximum value that can be gained by partitioning the items into parts and taking the part with the minimum value. An allocation of items among agents with different valuations is called MMS-fair if each agent gets a bundle that is at least as good as his/her 1-out-of-n maximin-share. MMS fairness is a relaxation of the criterion of proportionality - each agent gets a bundle that is at least as good as the equal split ( of every resource). Proportionality can be guaranteed when the items are divisible, but not when they are indivisible, even if all agents have identical valuations. In contrast, MMS fairness can always be guaranteed to identical agents, so it is a natural alternative to proportionality even when the agents are different.

Round robin is a procedure for fair item allocation. It can be used to allocate several indivisible items among several people, such that the allocation is "almost" envy-free: each agent believes that the bundle he received is at least as good as the bundle of any other agent, when at most one item is removed from the other bundle. In sports, the round-robin procedure is called a draft.

When allocating objects among people with different preferences, two major goals are Pareto efficiency and fairness. Since the objects are indivisible, there may not exist any fair allocation. For example, when there is a single house and two people, every allocation of the house will be unfair to one person. Therefore, several common approximations have been studied, such as maximin-share fairness (MMS), envy-freeness up to one item (EF1), proportionality up to one item (PROP1), and equitability up to one item (EQ1). The problem of efficient approximately fair item allocation is to find an allocation that is both Pareto-efficient (PE) and satisfies one of these fairness notions. The problem was first presented at 2016 and has attracted considerable attention since then.

Egalitarian item allocation, also called max-min item allocation is a fair item allocation problem, in which the fairness criterion follows the egalitarian rule. The goal is to maximize the minimum value of an agent. That is, among all possible allocations, the goal is to find an allocation in which the smallest value of an agent is as large as possible. In case there are two or more allocations with the same smallest value, then the goal is to select, from among these allocations, the one in which the second-smallest value is as large as possible, and so on. Therefore, an egalitarian item allocation is sometimes called a leximin item allocation.

Proportional item allocation is a fair item allocation problem, in which the fairness criterion is proportionality - each agent should receive a bundle that they value at least as much as 1/n of the entire allocation, where n is the number of agents.

In economics and computer science, Fractional Pareto efficiency or Fractional Pareto optimality (fPO) is a variant of Pareto efficiency used in the setting of fair allocation of discrete objects. An allocation of objects is called discrete if each item is wholly allocated to a single agent; it is called fractional if some objects are split among two or more agents. A discrete allocation is called Pareto-efficient (PO) if it is not Pareto-dominated by any discrete allocation; it is called fractionally Pareto-efficient (fPO) if it is not Pareto-dominated by any discrete or fractional allocation. So fPO is a stronger requirement than PO: every fPO allocation is PO, but not every PO allocation is fPO.

Online fair division is a class of fair division problems in which the resources, or the people to whom they should be allocated, or both, are not all available when the allocation decision is made. Some situations in which not all resources are available include:

In computer science and operations research, the envy minimization problem is the problem of allocating discrete items among agents with different valuations over the items, such that the amount of envy is as small as possible.

Fair division among groups is a class of fair division problems, in which the resources are allocated among groups of agents, rather than among individual agents. After the division, all members in each group consume the same share, but they may have different preferences; therefore, different members in the same group might disagree on whether the allocation is fair or not. Some examples of group fair division settings are:

Fair allocation of items and money is a class of fair item allocation problems in which, during the allocation process, it is possible to give or take money from some of the participants. Without money, it may be impossible to allocate indivisible items fairly. For example, if there is one item and two people, and the item must be given entirely to one of them, the allocation will be unfair towards the other one. Monetary payments make it possible to attain fairness, as explained below.

The welfare maximization problem is an optimization problem studied in economics and computer science. Its goal is to partition a set of items among agents with different utility functions, such that the welfare – defined as the sum of the agents' utilities – is as high as possible. In other words, the goal is to find an item allocation satisfying the utilitarian rule.

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