Different ways to share a common resource among competing entities:
- Random
People seem to complain the least about random, luck, fate etc. Which is why the most contentious resources are sometimes divided using lottery.
Examples:
Zolgensma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onasemnogene_abeparvovec), the million-dollar drug which can decide whether your child gets to live or not.
Course allocation in BITS using priority numbers
- FIFO - Early bird gets the worm
Examples:
Tatkal, Black Friday
- Currency
Use virtual/real currency to buy the resources in auctions.
Examples: IPL, Course allocations in IIMs
- Proof of Work
Examples
Bitcoin - resource being the newly minted block
Course allocations at CMU. You get to register for way too many courses, but to continue with them you have to complete the assignments. Since students can't keep up with assignments in 9 simultaneous courses, they will automatically drop off.
- Proof of Stake
Examples
Some cryptocurrencies
Vatican Church
- [Benevolent] Dictator - Let some dictator choose who gets what
Examples:
North Korea
Torvalds - resource being MRs into mainline
- Mimicry - Let someone else slice their pie, then slice your pie in the exact same way
Examples:
Index Funds
Most middle class spending
Corollary
When the demand for the resources are asymmetric (A is willing to pay more for alpha than beta, but B is willing to pay more for beta over alpha), following methods can be employed on top of above:
- Stable Marriage Problem
Examples:
Medical Residency
JEE degree assignment is a trivial reduction of stable marriage algorithm when students have a preference for college but not vice versa.
- Sperner's Lemma
Examples:
Iterative auction to arrive at stable prices for resources. https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~arielpro/15896s15/docs/paper11a.pdf