file.pdf (283.54 kB)
Simultaneous Cake Cutting
journal contribution
posted on 2002-11-01, 00:00 authored by Eric Balkanski, Simina Brânzei, David Kurokawa, Ariel D. ProcacciaWe introduce the simultaneous model for cake cutting (the fair allocation of a divisible good), in which agents simultaneously send messages containing a sketch of their preferences over the cake. We show that this model enables the computation of divisions that satisfy proportionality — a popular fairness notion — using a protocol that circumvents a standard lower bound via parallel information elicitation. Cake divisions satisfying another prominent fairness notion, envy-freeness, are impossible to compute in the simultaneous model, but admit arbitrarily good approximations.