Workshop: Sinan Ertemel

Fair Division: From Sharing a Cake to Dividing an Estate

We introduce the central ideas and practical methods of fair division, covering both the allocation of heterogeneous resources (cake-cutting) and the division of scarce homogeneous resources in estate and bankruptcy settings. The workshop begins with the main fairness principles (exogenous rights, compensation, reward, and fitness) and examines how they translate into real-world allocation problems. We then develop classical and modern procedures, including divide-and-choose, the Steinhaus and last-diminisher methods, as well as key bankruptcy rules such as the proportional rule, constrained equal awards, constrained equal losses, and the Talmud rule. Engaging with both axiomatic foundations and game-theoretic interpretations (the Shapley value and the nucleolus) the workshop integrates theory and examples to illustrate how mathematical fairness principles guide decisions in public policy, and everyday disputes.

Room: Natuk Birkan Binası – Murat Sertel Lounge