Up methods in the allocation of indivisibilities when preferences are single-peaked.

Abstract

We consider allocation problems with indivisible goods when agents' preferences are single-peaked. We propose natural rules (called up methods) to solve such a class of problems. We analyzed the properties those methods satisfy and we provide a characterization of them. We also prove that these methods can be interpreted as extensions to the indivisible case of the so-called equal-distance rule.Allocation problem, indivisibilities, single-peaked preferences, standard of comparison, up method.