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Towards a Characterization of Random Serial Dictatorship

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  • Felix Brandt
  • Matthias Greger
  • Ren'e Romen

Abstract

Random serial dictatorship (RSD) is a randomized assignment rule that - given a set of $n$ agents with strict preferences over $n$ houses - satisfies equal treatment of equals, ex post efficiency, and strategyproofness. For $n \le 3$, Bogomolnaia and Moulin (2001) have shown that RSD is characterized by these axioms. Extending this characterization to arbitrary $n$ is a long-standing open problem. By weakening ex post efficiency and strategyproofness, we reduce the question of whether RSD is characterized by these axioms for fixed $n$ to determining whether a matrix has rank $n^2 n!^n$. We leverage this insight to prove the characterization for $n \le 5$ with the help of a computer. We also provide computer-generated counterexamples to show that two other approaches for proving the characterization (using deterministic extreme points or restricted domains of preferences) are inadequate.

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  • Felix Brandt & Matthias Greger & Ren'e Romen, 2023. "Towards a Characterization of Random Serial Dictatorship," Papers 2303.11976, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2023.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2303.11976
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    References listed on IDEAS

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