A simple random assignment problem with a unique solution (Q699028)

The authors consider the special case of random assignment where the objects ranked in the same way by all agents, where opting out is feasible and where the agents differ about which objects are desirable. They introduce the new concept of ordinal efficiency which relies only on profile of ordinal deadlines. It views an assignment as inefficient if there is another feasible assignment that is Pareto superior for all cardinal utility profiles compatible with the given profile of deadlines. In the axiomatic analysis the authors restrict the attention to those mechanisms that only elicit an ordinal component of the agents' preferences, namely deadlines. The Probabilistic Serial assignment is introduced and characterized by No Envy and ordinal efficiency. The Probabilistic Serial mechanisim is then characterized by a combination of Ordinal Efficiency, Equal Treatment of Equals and strategy proofness.