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Divorcing Made Easy

  • Conference paper
Fun with Algorithms (FUN 2012)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7288))

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Abstract

We discuss the proportionally fair allocation of a set of indivisible items to k agents. We assume that each agent specifies only a ranking of the items from best to worst. Agents do not specify their valuations of the items. An allocation is proportionally fair if all agents believe that they have received their fair share of the value according to how they value the items.

We give simple conditions (and a fast algorithm) for determining whether the agents rankings give sufficient information to determine a proportionally fair allocation. An important special case is a divorce situation with two agents. For such a divorce situation, we provide a particularly simple allocation rule that should have applications in the real world.

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References

  • Brams, S.J., Taylor, A.D.: Fair Division – From cake cutting to dispute resolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1996)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, University of Pittsburgh, Sennott Square Building, Room 6415, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Kirk Pruhs

  2. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, TU Eindhoven, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, Netherlands

    Gerhard J. Woeginger

Authors
  1. Kirk Pruhs
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  2. Gerhard J. Woeginger
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, Carleton University, 1125 Col. By Dr., K1S 5B6, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Evangelos Kranakis

  2. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wesleyan University, 06459, Middleton, CT, USA

    Danny Krizanc

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica, Università Ca’ Foscari, Via Torino 155, 30172, Mestre (Ve), Italy

    Flaminia Luccio

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Pruhs, K., Woeginger, G.J. (2012). Divorcing Made Easy. In: Kranakis, E., Krizanc, D., Luccio, F. (eds) Fun with Algorithms. FUN 2012. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7288. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30347-0_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30347-0_30

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-30346-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-30347-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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