Entropy, desegregation, and proportional rationing

Herve Moulin

Journal of Economic Theory, 2016, vol. 162, issue C, 1-20

Abstract: An assignment of students to schools displays zero-segregation if all schools have the same distribution of the different types of students (ethnic, geographical, gender). We axiomatize the choice of an optimally desegregated assignment under arbitrary capacity constraints. The celebrated Consistency axiom, together with standard rational choice requirements, identify the choice rule minimizing a canonical index of proportional fairness: the entropy of the assignment matrix. This is an alternative vindication of the Mutual Information index of segregation recently characterized in Frankel and Volij (2011).

Keywords: Assignment; Bipartite rationing; Proportionality; Segregation; Consistency; Entropy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:162:y:2016:i:c:p:1-20

DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2015.12.002

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