A generalbranch-and-boundalgorithmforfairdivisionproblems

In thispaper,weintroduceabranch-and-boundalgorithmforsolvingfairdivisionproblemswith indivisibleitems.Unlikesimilaralgorithmsforthisproblem,ouralgorithmisapplicabletoawideclass of possiblefairnesscriteria.Computationalresultsshowthatthealgorithmexhibitsverygood performanceforaconsiderablenumberofprobleminstances.Mainapplicationsofthealgorithmare seen incomputationalstudiesoffairnesscriteriaandfairdivisionproblems.Intheseproblems,a relativelysmallnumberofitemsisconsidered,soanexactalgorithmcanbeusedeventhoughthe problemisageneralizationofthesetpartitioningproblem,whichisNP-complete.Anexemplarystudy comparingMax–minandNashbargainingsolutionstothefairdivisionproblemillustratestheuseof the algorithm.