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Main Authors: Chen, Ziheng, Li, Bo, Luo, Zihan, Zhang, Jialin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.09299
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author Chen, Ziheng
Li, Bo
Luo, Zihan
Zhang, Jialin
author_facet Chen, Ziheng
Li, Bo
Luo, Zihan
Zhang, Jialin
contents We study the problem of allocating $m$ indivisible goods among $n$ agents, where each agent's valuation is fractionally subadditive (XOS). With respect to AnyPrice Share (APS) fairness, Kulkarni et al. (2024) showed that, when agents have binary marginal values, a $0.1222$-APS allocation can be found in polynomial time, and there exists an instance where no allocation is better than $0.5$-approximate APS. Very recently, Feige and Grinberg (2025) extended the problem to the asymmetric case, where agents may have different entitlements, and improved the approximation ratio to $1/6$ for general XOS valuations. In this work, we focus on the asymmetric setting with binary XOS valuations, and further improve the approximation ratio to $1/2$, which matches the known upper bound. We also present a polynomial-time algorithm to compute such an allocation. Beyond APS fairness, we also study the weighted maximin share (WMMS) fairness. Farhadi et al. (2019) showed that, a $1/n$-WMMS allocation always exists for agents with general additive valuations, and that this approximation ratio is tight. We extend this result to general XOS valuations, where a $1/n$-WMMS allocation still exists, and this approximation ratio cannot be improved even when marginal values are binary. This shows a sharp contrast to binary additive valuations, where an exact WMMS allocation exists and can be found in polynomial time.
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spellingShingle On the Fair Allocation to Asymmetric Agents with Binary XOS Valuations
Chen, Ziheng
Li, Bo
Luo, Zihan
Zhang, Jialin
Computer Science and Game Theory
We study the problem of allocating $m$ indivisible goods among $n$ agents, where each agent's valuation is fractionally subadditive (XOS). With respect to AnyPrice Share (APS) fairness, Kulkarni et al. (2024) showed that, when agents have binary marginal values, a $0.1222$-APS allocation can be found in polynomial time, and there exists an instance where no allocation is better than $0.5$-approximate APS. Very recently, Feige and Grinberg (2025) extended the problem to the asymmetric case, where agents may have different entitlements, and improved the approximation ratio to $1/6$ for general XOS valuations. In this work, we focus on the asymmetric setting with binary XOS valuations, and further improve the approximation ratio to $1/2$, which matches the known upper bound. We also present a polynomial-time algorithm to compute such an allocation. Beyond APS fairness, we also study the weighted maximin share (WMMS) fairness. Farhadi et al. (2019) showed that, a $1/n$-WMMS allocation always exists for agents with general additive valuations, and that this approximation ratio is tight. We extend this result to general XOS valuations, where a $1/n$-WMMS allocation still exists, and this approximation ratio cannot be improved even when marginal values are binary. This shows a sharp contrast to binary additive valuations, where an exact WMMS allocation exists and can be found in polynomial time.
title On the Fair Allocation to Asymmetric Agents with Binary XOS Valuations
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.09299