The Geometry of Efficient Fair Division
Published on 24. January 2005
Book
Hardback
472 pages
978-0-521-84248-8 (ISBN)
Description
What is the best way to divide a 'cake' and allocate the pieces among some finite collection of players? In this book, the cake is a measure space, and each player uses a countably additive, non-atomic probability measure to evaluate the size of the pieces of cake, with different players generally using different measures. The author investigates efficiency properties (is there another partition that would make everyone at least as happy, and would make at least one player happier, than the present partition?) and fairness properties (do all players think that their piece is at least as large as every other player's piece?). He focuses exclusively on abstract existence results rather than algorithms, and on the geometric objects that arise naturally in this context. By examining the shape of these objects and the relationship between them, he demonstrates results concerning the existence of efficient and fair partitions.
Reviews / Votes
'In Chapters 12 and 13, he studies the relationship between the IPS and the RNS, and he provides a new presentation of the fundamental result that ensures the existence of a partition that is both Pareto optimal and envy-free.' Zentralblatt MATHMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
73 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
914 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-84248-8 (9780521842488)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2005
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
€103.99
Available for download
Persons
Julius B. Barbanel is Professor of Mathematics at Union College, where he has also served as Department Chair. He has published numerous articles in the areas of both Logic and Set Theory, and Fair Division in leading mathematical journals. He is a member of the Mathematical Association of American, the Association of Symbolic Logic, and the Game Theory Society.
Content
0. Preface; 1. Notation and preliminaries; 2. Geometric object #1a: the individual pieces set (IPS) for two players; 3. What the IPS tells us about fairness and efficiency in the two-player context; 4. The general case of n players; 5. What the IPS and the FIPS tell us about fairness and efficiency in the n-player context; 6. Characterizing Pareto optimality: introduction and preliminary ideas; 7. Characterizing Pareto optimality I: the IPS and optimization of convex combinations of measures; 8. Characterizing Pareto optimality II: partition ratios; 9. Geometric object #2: The Radon-Nikodym set (RNS); 10. Characterizing Pareto optimality III: the RNS, Weller's construction, and w-association; 11. The shape of the IPS; 12. The relationship between the IPS and the RNS; 13. Other issues involving Weller's construction, partition ratios, and Pareto optimality; 14. Strong Pareto optimality; 15. Characterizing Pareto optimality using hyperreal numbers; 16. The multi-cake individual pieces set (MIPS): symmetry restored.