An Introduction to Allocation Rules

This book focuses on analyzing cost and surplus sharing problems in a systematic fashion. It offers an in-depth analysis of various types of rules for allocating a common monetary value (cost) between members of a group or network – e.g. individuals, firms or products. The results can help readers evaluate the pros and cons of the various methods involved in terms of various factors such as fairness, consistency, stability, monotonicity and manipulability. As such, the book represents an up-to-date survey of cost and surplus sharing methods for researchers, students and practitioners alike. The text is accompanied by practical cases and numerous examples to make the theoretical results easily accessible.

• Allocation Rules
• Allocation in Networks
• Axiomatic Characterization
• Cost Sharing
• Surplus Sharing
• linear optimization

Reviews H. Moulin, M. Koster

From the reviews:

“The referred volume is organized as a summary textbook offering mathematical analysis of a series of typical allocation rules. It offers an overview and mathematical formalism of current knowledge of its field of interest, focused on allocating monetary costs among members of a group or network of agents. … The theoretical models are completed by numerous illustrative examples, and all particular chapters are closed by methodological comments, a heuristic summary and a sufficient list of references.” (Milan Mareš, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1178, 2010)

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