ClaimsProblems

Analysis of Conflicting Claims

The analysis of conflicting claims arises when a scarce resource has to be divided among a set of agents with claims that exceed what is available. A rule is a way of selecting a division among the claimants of the endowment.

This toolbox computes the main rules proposed in the literature: the proportional and the adjusted proportional rules, the constrained equal awards and the constrained equal losses rules, the constrained egalitarian, the Piniles’ and the minimal overlap rules, the random arrival and the Talmud rules. The Domínguez and Thomson rule and the average of awards rule are also included. The formal definition of all these rules can be found in the book written by W. Thomson, in 2019, How to divide when there isn't enough. From Aristotle, the Talmud, and Maimonides to the axiomatics of resource allocation, with the exception of the average of awards rule introduced by Mirás et al (2022) in The average-of-awards rule for claims problems.

In addition, the toolbox provides graphical tools to represent: the set of awards for a claims problem; the path of awards, the schedules of awards of a rule for a claims problem; and the Lorenz curve and the cumulative claims-awards curve of a rule. The Gini index and the proportional deviation index of a rule are also computed. A good understanding of the properties satisfied or violated by the different rules, of their similarities and differences, is crucial when the decision maker has to select one rule for a specific claims problems in a real context.

This toolbox aims at helping, both the researcher and the manager, in that process.