{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T09:10:42Z","timestamp":1778231442226,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)","issue":"2","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Mathematics of OR"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,5]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>We must assign n agents to m posts subject to negative congestion; what assignment is fair and efficient? If congestion is anonymous (each agent adds one unit), it is always possible to assign each agent to one of the agent\u2019s top n out of the [Formula: see text] feasible allocations. This ordinal interpretation of ex ante fairness can be adjusted if congestion is weighted (agent-specific). An assignment is competitive if I don\u2019t want to move to an empty post or to an occupied one at its current congestion level. If it exists, the competitive assignment is essentially unique, efficient, and ex ante fair. Among agents endowed with cardinal expected utilities, we can randomize the selection of our assignment. Under anonymous congestion, every problem has a unique competitive congestion profile implemented by a mixture of deterministic assignments, rounding up or down the competitive congestion, and approximately ex ante fair, efficient, and welfare equivalent. Some of these properties are lost under weighted congestion.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1287\/moor.2024.0581","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,7]],"date-time":"2025-05-07T12:54:52Z","timestamp":1746622492000},"page":"1061-1079","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Fair Congested Assignment"],"prefix":"10.1287","volume":"51","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0377-862X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Bogomolnaia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom; and Centre d\u2019Economie de la Sorbonne, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 75647 Paris, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3358-6290","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Herv\u00e9","family":"Moulin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"109","reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/000282803322157061"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s003550000067"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tcs.2010.05.005"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jet.2015.04.008"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/game.2001.0877"},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/jeth.2000.2710"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s00182-006-0043-4"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/294331"},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/664613"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cor.2021.105693"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tcs.2008.04.031"},{"key":"B12","unstructured":"Chen J, Guo G, Wen Y (2023) Algorithms and complexity for congested assignments. Preprint, submitted December 12, https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2312.07431."},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Copland A (2021) School choice and class size externalities. Preprint, submitted February 3, 2023, https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.2139\/ssrn.4346860.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.4346860"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/9780470400531.eorms0962"},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jpubeco.2005.02.002"},{"key":"B16","first-page":"45","volume":"7","author":"Foley DK","year":"1967","journal-title":"Yale Econom. Essays"},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01589354"},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/1911219"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3982\/TE1135"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/mic.20150259"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/260757"},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.20101552"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jet.2005.05.001"},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/jeth.1996.2203"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Koutsoupias E, Papadimitriou CH (1999) Worst-case equilibria. Meinel C, Tison S, eds.\n                      STACS 99. STACS 99\n                      , Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 1563 (Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg), 404\u2013413.","DOI":"10.1007\/3-540-49116-3_38"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/game.1996.0027"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1006\/game.1996.0044"},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econlet.2013.03.007"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-economics-080218-025559"},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.20220626"},{"key":"B31","volume-title":"The Economics of Welfare","author":"Pigou AC","year":"1920"},{"issue":"145","key":"B32","first-page":"47","volume":"37","author":"Ramsey FP","year":"1927","journal-title":"Econom. J."},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/BF01737559"},{"key":"B34","volume-title":"Selfish Routing and the Price of Anarchy","author":"Roughgarden T","year":"2005"},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/506147.506153"},{"issue":"2","key":"B36","first-page":"217","volume":"29","author":"Varian H","year":"1974","journal-title":"J. Econom. Theory"},{"issue":"2","key":"B37","first-page":"251","volume":"59","author":"Vickrey WS","year":"1969","journal-title":"Amer. Econom. Rev."}],"container-title":["Mathematics of Operations Research"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1287\/moor.2024.0581","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,8]],"date-time":"2026-05-08T08:26:59Z","timestamp":1778228819000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pubsonline.informs.org\/doi\/10.1287\/moor.2024.0581"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,5]]},"references-count":37,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,5]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1287\/moor.2024.0581"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1287\/moor.2024.0581","relation":{},"ISSN":["0364-765X","1526-5471"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0364-765X","type":"print"},{"value":"1526-5471","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,5]]}}}