A Characterization of a Family of Rules for the Adjudication of Conflicting Claims

We consider the problem of adjudicating conflicting claims, and characterize the family of rules satisfying four standard invariance requirements, homogeneity, two composition properties, and consistency. It takes as point of departure the characterization of the family of two-claimant rules satisfying the first three requirements, and describes the restrictions imposed by consistency on this family and the further implications of this requirement for problems with three or more claimants. The proof, which is an alternative to Moulin's original proof (Econometrica, 2000), is based on a general method of constructing consistent extensions of two-claimant rules (Thomson, 2001), which exploits geometric properties of paths of awards, seen in their entirety.claims problems, consistent extensions, proportional rule, constrained equal awards rule, constrained equal losses rule.

Strong composition down in the adjudication of conflicting claims

This paper is devoted to the study of claims problems. I characterize the family of rules that satisfy both strong composition down (robustness with respect to reevaluations of the estate) and consistency (robustness with respect to changes in the set of agents). These are the fixed path rules, a generalization of the weighted constrained equal awards rules. In addition, if strong composition down and consistency are combined with homogeneity, only the weighted constrained equal awards rules survive. I also prove that the constrained equal awards rule is the only rule that satisfies strong composition down, consistency and equal treatment of equals. Keywords: claims problem, strong composition down, fixed path rules, constrained equal awards rule

Burden sharing in deficit countries: a questionnaire-experimental investigation

This paper studies the problem of burden sharing in countries that were forced to introduce severe budget cuts after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 which had unleashed a financial crisis in many industrialised countries of the Western world. We do not ask how the burden was actually split in each country examined but how the burden should have been shared among different income groups of society. In order to answer this question, a questionnaire-experimental investigation was run among students from Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Our study offered the students seven different schemes of taxation amongst which we had specified a proportional rule and two progressive schemes of differing severity. A key result within our investigation is the finding that a large majority of students in all countries involved rarely opted for a proportional rule of burden sharing but picked one of the two progressive schemes instead. However, there were differences between countries with respect to the frequencies of these three rules, whereby Greece and Ireland were polar cases. The other rules received only minor support

Composition properties in the river claims problem

In a river claims problem, agents are ordered linearly, and they have both an initial water endowment as well as a claim to the total water resource. We provide characterizations of two solutions to this problem, using Composition properties which have particularly relevant interpretations for the river claims problem. Specifically, these properties relate to situations where river flow is uncertain or highly variable, possibly due to climate change impacts. The only solution that satisfies all Composition properties is the `Harmon rule' induced by the Harmon Doctrine, which says that agents are free to use any water available on their territory, without concern for downstream impacts. The other solution that we assess is the `No-harm rule', an extreme interpretation of the no-harm principle from international water law, which implies that water is allocated as far downstream as possible. In addition to characterizing both solutions, we show their relation to priority rules and sequential sharing rules