Fair Cake-Cutting in Practice

Using a lab experiment, we investigate the real-life performance of envy-free and proportional cake-cutting procedures with respect to fairness and preference manipulation. We find that envy-free procedures, in particular Selfridge-Conway, are fairer and also are perceived as fairer than their propo...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	arXiv.org
Main Authors:	Kyropoulou, Maria, Ortega, Josué, Segal-Halevi, Erel
Format:	Paper
Language:	English
Published:	Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 05.02.2022
Subjects:	Cutting
ISSN:	2331-8422
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Using a lab experiment, we investigate the real-life performance of envy-free and proportional cake-cutting procedures with respect to fairness and preference manipulation. We find that envy-free procedures, in particular Selfridge-Conway, are fairer and also are perceived as fairer than their proportional counterparts, despite the fact that agents very often manipulate them. Our results support the practical use of the celebrated Selfridge-Conway procedure, and more generally, of envy-free cake-cutting mechanisms. We also find that subjects learn their opponents' preferences after repeated interaction and use this knowledge to improve their allocated share of the cake. Learning reduces truth-telling behavior, but also reduces envy.
Bibliography:	SourceType-Working Papers-1 ObjectType-Working Paper/Pre-Print-1 content type line 50
ISSN:	2331-8422
DOI:	10.48550/arxiv.1810.08243