The Average-Value Allocation Problem
Data Structures and Algorithms
2025-09-09 v2 Computer Science and Game Theory
Abstract
We initiate the study of centralized algorithms for welfare-maximizing allocation of goods to buyers subject to average-value constraints. We show that this problem is NP-hard to approximate beyond a factor of , and provide a -approximate offline algorithm. For the online setting, we show that no non-trivial approximations are achievable under adversarial arrivals. Under i.i.d. arrivals, we present a polytime online algorithm that provides a constant approximation of the optimal (computationally-unbounded) online algorithm. In contrast, we show that no constant approximation of the ex-post optimum is achievable by an online algorithm.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2407.10401,
title = {The Average-Value Allocation Problem},
author = {Kshipra Bhawalkar and Zhe Feng and Anupam Gupta and Aranyak Mehta and David Wajc and Di Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.10401},
year = {2025}
}