Computing welfare and fairness in allocating identical goods with entitlements and general utility functions

TL;DR

This paper introduces polynomial-time algorithms for maximizing welfare and fairness in allocating identical goods with arbitrary utility functions and entitlements, ensuring equitable and efficient outcomes.

Contribution

It presents new algorithms for welfare maximization and fairness in identical goods allocation, including equitable allocation via minimal compensation and analysis of welfare concepts.

Findings

Polynomial-time algorithm for maximum weighted Rawlsian and Leximin welfare.

Allocation is equitable up to any item (WEQX).

New metric 'total weighted deficit' aids in equitable allocation with minimal coins.

Abstract

A number of goods are called identical if they provide the same level of utility to each agent. In various real-world instances of fair division scenarios, identical indivisible items are allocated to consumers or demandants with different entitlements. We assume that the utility of $t$ identical items to each agent $A$ equals $f_A(t)$, where $f_A$ is an arbitrary increasing function associated with $A$. We present a polynomial time algorithm that determines the maximum weighted Rawlsian and Leximin welfare for scenarios with identical goods and show that the allocation obtained by the algorithm is equitable up to any item (WEQX). Some results concerning restricted utilitarian welfare and the existence of WEFX allocations are also presented. We introduce a new quantity ``total weighted deficit," for allocations, and by which we obtain a tractable algorithm to achieve equitable allocations for scenarios with identical goods and different entitlements via compensation by using a minimum number of identical coins.