Distributing fixed resources over many items. An experimental interface

Alessandra Casella and Olivier Compte ()
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Alessandra Casella: Columbia University
Olivier Compte: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris

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Abstract: We propose an experimental interface designed to elicit the distribution of a budget of resources over a very large number of items. The interface has two related innovations. First, it asks participants to indicate how they allocate the resources by drawing a curve over a stylized representation of the many items. Second, because the curve represents relative, rather than absolute, levels of resources, it remains visually stable when a participant revises any specific allocation, while the program automatically enforces the budget constraint. We describe the application of the interface to a Blotto game with more than 200 items, but the approach can be adapted flexibly to general problems of resource allocations over many items, under a budget constraint.

Date: 2026
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Published in Journal of the Economic Science Association, In press, ⟨10.1017/esa.2026.10035⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:pseptp:halshs-05838877

DOI: 10.1017/esa.2026.10035

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