IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/gamebe/v144y2024icp49-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A fair and truthful mechanism with limited subsidy

Author

Listed:
  • Goko, Hiromichi
  • Igarashi, Ayumi
  • Kawase, Yasushi
  • Makino, Kazuhisa
  • Sumita, Hanna
  • Tamura, Akihisa
  • Yokoi, Yu
  • Yokoo, Makoto

Abstract

The notion of envy-freeness is a natural and intuitive fairness requirement in resource allocation. With indivisible goods, such fair allocations are not guaranteed to exist. Classical works have avoided this issue by introducing an additional divisible resource, i.e., money. In this paper, we aim to design a truthful allocation mechanism of indivisible goods to achieve fairness and efficiency criteria with a limited amount of subsidy. Following the work of Halpern and Shah, our central question is as follows: to what extent do we need to rely on the power of money to accomplish these objectives? We show that, when agents have matroidal valuations, there is a truthful allocation mechanism that achieves envy-freeness and utilitarian optimality by subsidizing each agent with at most 1, the maximum marginal contribution of each item for each agent. The design of the mechanism rests crucially on the underlying matroidal M-convexity of the Lorenz dominating allocations.

Suggested Citation

  • Goko, Hiromichi & Igarashi, Ayumi & Kawase, Yasushi & Makino, Kazuhisa & Sumita, Hanna & Tamura, Akihisa & Yokoi, Yu & Yokoo, Makoto, 2024. "A fair and truthful mechanism with limited subsidy," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 49-70.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:144:y:2024:i:c:p:49-70
    DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2023.12.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825624000022
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.geb.2023.12.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric S. Maskin, 1987. "On the Fair Allocation of Indivisible Goods," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: George R. Feiwel (ed.), Arrow and the Foundations of the Theory of Economic Policy, chapter 11, pages 341-349, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Sun, Ning & Yang, Zaifu, 2003. "A general strategy proof fair allocation mechanism," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 73-79, October.
    3. Kazuo Murota, 2016. "Discrete convex analysis: A tool for economics and game theory," The Journal of Mechanism and Institution Design, Society for the Promotion of Mechanism and Institution Design, University of York, vol. 1(1), pages 151-273, December.
    4. Herve Moulin, 2004. "Fair Division and Collective Welfare," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262633116, December.
    5. Flip Klijn, 2000. "An algorithm for envy-free allocations in an economy with indivisible objects and money," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 17(2), pages 201-215.
    6. Svensson, Lars-Gunnar, 1983. "Large Indivisibles: An Analysis with Respect to Price Equilibrium and Fairness," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(4), pages 939-954, July.
    7. William Vickrey, 1961. "Counterspeculation, Auctions, And Competitive Sealed Tenders," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 16(1), pages 8-37, March.
    8. Kazuo Murota & Akiyoshi Shioura & Zaifu Yang, 2013. "Computing a Walrasian Equilibrium in Iterative Auctions with Multiple Differentiated Items," Discussion Papers 13/13, Department of Economics, University of York.
    9. Alkan, Ahmet & Demange, Gabrielle & Gale, David, 1991. "Fair Allocation of Indivisible Goods and Criteria of Justice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(4), pages 1023-1039, July.
    10. Anna Bogomolnaia & Herve Moulin, 2004. "Random Matching Under Dichotomous Preferences," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 72(1), pages 257-279, January.
    11. Paul Zipkin, 2008. "On the Structure of Lost-Sales Inventory Models," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(4), pages 937-944, August.
    12. Varian, Hal R., 1974. "Equity, envy, and efficiency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 63-91, September.
    13. Ning Sun & Zaifu Yang, 2006. "Equilibria and Indivisibilities: Gross Substitutes and Complements," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(5), pages 1385-1402, September.
    14. Eric Budish, 2011. "The Combinatorial Assignment Problem: Approximate Competitive Equilibrium from Equal Incomes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(6), pages 1061-1103.
    15. Woonghee Tim Huh & Ganesh Janakiraman, 2010. "On the Optimal Policy Structure in Serial Inventory Systems with Lost Sales," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 486-491, April.
    16. Edward Clarke, 1971. "Multipart pricing of public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 17-33, September.
    17. Kojima, Fuhito & Tamura, Akihisa & Yokoo, Makoto, 2018. "Designing matching mechanisms under constraints: An approach from discrete convex analysis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 803-833.
    18. Groves, Theodore, 1973. "Incentives in Teams," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 41(4), pages 617-631, July.
    19. Ioannis Caragiannis & David Kurokawa & Herve Moulin & Ariel D. Procaccia & Nisarg Shah & Junxing Wang, 2016. "The Unreasonable Fairness of Maximum Nash Welfare," Working Papers 2016_08, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    20. Kazuo Murota & Yu Yokoi, 2015. "On the Lattice Structure of Stable Allocations in a Two-Sided Discrete-Concave Market," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 40(2), pages 460-473, February.
    21. Tadenuma, Koichi & Thomson, William, 1993. "The fair allocation of an indivisible good when monetary compensations are possible," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 117-132, February.
    22. Szilvia Pápai, 2003. "Groves sealed bid auctions of heterogeneous objects with fair prices," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 20(3), pages 371-385, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Youngsub Chun & Manipushpak Mitra & Suresh Mutuswami, 2014. "Egalitarian equivalence and strategyproofness in the queueing problem," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 56(2), pages 425-442, June.
    2. Duygu Yengin, 2017. "No-envy and egalitarian-equivalence under multi-object-demand for heterogeneous objects," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(1), pages 81-108, January.
    3. Ohseto, Shinji, 2005. "Strategy-proof assignment with fair compensation," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 215-226, September.
    4. Lars-Gunnar Svensson, 2009. "Coalitional strategy-proofness and fairness," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 40(2), pages 227-245, August.
    5. Conan Mukherjee, 2014. "Fair and group strategy-proof good allocation with money," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 42(2), pages 289-311, February.
    6. Thomson, William, 2011. "Chapter Twenty-One - Fair Allocation Rules," Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, in: K. J. Arrow & A. K. Sen & K. Suzumura (ed.), Handbook of Social Choice and Welfare, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 21, pages 393-506, Elsevier.
    7. Johannes Brustle & Jack Dippel & Vishnu V. Narayan & Mashbat Suzuki & Adrian Vetta, 2019. "One Dollar Each Eliminates Envy," Papers 1912.02797, arXiv.org.
    8. , & ,, 2015. "Strategy-proofness and efficiency with non-quasi-linear preferences: a characterization of minimum price Walrasian rule," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(2), May.
    9. Paula Jaramillo & Çaǧatay Kayı & Flip Klijn, 2014. "Asymmetrically fair rules for an indivisible good problem with a budget constraint," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(3), pages 603-633, October.
    10. Kojima, Fuhito & Tamura, Akihisa & Yokoo, Makoto, 2018. "Designing matching mechanisms under constraints: An approach from discrete convex analysis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 803-833.
    11. Ning Sun & Zaifu Yang, 2009. "Strategy Proof And Privacy Preserving Fair Allocation Mechanism," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 60(2), pages 143-151, June.
    12. Svensson, Lars-Gunnar, 2004. "Strategy-Proof and Fair Wages," Working Papers 2004:8, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    13. Tommy Andersson & Lars Ehlers & Lars-Gunnar Svensson & Ryan Tierney, 2022. "Gale’s Fixed Tax for Exchanging Houses," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 47(4), pages 3110-3128, November.
    14. Shinji Ohseto, 2006. "Characterizations of strategy-proof and fair mechanisms for allocating indivisible goods," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 29(1), pages 111-121, September.
    15. Meertens, Marc & Potters, Jos & Reijnierse, Hans, 2002. "Envy-free and Pareto efficient allocations in economies with indivisible goods and money," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 223-233, December.
    16. Tommy ANDERSSON & Lars EHLERS & Lars-Gunnar SVENSSON, 2014. "Transferring Ownership of Public Housing to Existing Tenants : A Mechanism Design Approach," Cahiers de recherche 09-2014, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    17. Tomoya Kazumura & Shigehiro Serizawa, 2016. "Efficiency and strategy-proofness in object assignment problems with multi-demand preferences," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(3), pages 633-663, October.
    18. Tommy Andersson & Christer Andersson, 2009. "Solving House Allocation Problems with Risk-Averse Agents," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 389-401, May.
    19. Toyotaka Sakai, 2008. "Second price auctions on general preference domains: two characterizations," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 37(2), pages 347-356, November.
    20. Miyagawa, Eiichi, 2001. "House Allocation with Transfers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 100(2), pages 329-355, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:144:y:2024:i:c:p:49-70. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.