The Efficient Allocation of Individuals to Positions

Abstract

In a variety of contexts, individuals must be allocated to positions with limited capacities. Legislators must be assigned to committees, college students to dormitories, and urban homesteaders to dwellings. (A general class of fair division problems would have the positions represent goods.) This paper examines the general problem of achieving efficient allocations when individuals' preferences are unknown and where (as with a growing number of nonmarket allocation schemes) there is no facilitating external medium of exchange such as money. An implicit market procedure is developed that elicits honest preferences, that assigns individuals efficiently, and that is adaptable to a variety of distributional objectives.