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Best-of-Both-Worlds Fair Allocation of Indivisible and Mixed Goods

  • Xiaolin Bu
  • , Zihao Li
  • , Shengxin Liu
  • , Xinhang Lu*
  • , Biaoshuai Tao
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • Shanghai Jiao Tong University
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen
  • University of New South Wales

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

We study the problem of fairly allocating either a set of indivisible goods or a set of mixed divisible and indivisible goods (i.e., mixed goods) to agents with additive utilities, taking the best-of-both-worlds perspective of guaranteeing fairness properties both ex-ante and ex-post. The ex-post fairness notions considered in this paper are relaxations of envy-freeness, specifically, EFX for indivisible-goods allocation, and EFM for mixed-goods allocation. For two agents, we show that there is a polynomial-time randomized algorithm that achieves ex-ante envy-freeness and ex-post EFX / EFM simultaneously. For n agents with bi-valued utilities, we show there exist randomized allocations that are (i) ex-ante proportional and ex-post EFM, and (ii) ex-ante envy-free, ex-post EFX, and ex-post fractionally Pareto optimal.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWeb and Internet Economics - 20th International Conference, WINE 2024, Proceedings
EditorsMarios Mavronicolas, Qi Qi, Grant Schoenebeck
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages277-294
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9783032085597
DOIs
StatePublished - 2026
Externally publishedYes
Event20th International Conference on Web and Internet Economics, WINE 2024 - Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Duration: 2 Dec 20245 Dec 2024

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science
Volume15534 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference20th International Conference on Web and Internet Economics, WINE 2024
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityEdinburgh
Period2/12/245/12/24

Keywords

  • Fair division
  • Indivisible goods
  • Mixed goods
  • Randomization and approximation

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