Choice with affirmative action

Date
2022-02-09
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Management Science
Print ISSN
0025-1909
Electronic ISSN
1526-5501
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
Volume
Issue
Pages
1 - 33
Language
English
Type
Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

A choice rule with affirmative action decides on the recipients of a limited number of identical objects by reconciling two objectives: respecting a priority ordering over the applicants and supporting a minority group. We extend the standard formulation of a choice problem by incorporating a type function and a priority ordering, and introduce monotonicity axioms on how a choice rule should respond to variations in these parameters. We show that monotonic and substitutable affirmative action rules are the ones that admit a bounded reserve representation. As a prominent class of choice rules that satisfy the monotonicity axioms, we characterize lexicographic affirmative action rules that are prevalent both in the literature and in practice. Our axiomatic approach provides a novel way to think about reserve systems and uncovers choice rules that go beyond lexicographic affirmative action rules.

Course
Other identifiers
Book Title
Keywords
Affirmative action, Bounded reserve representation, Lexicographic choice
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)