Fair Cake-Cutting in Practice

Using a lab experiment, we investigate the real-life performance of envy-free and proportional cake-cutting procedures with respect to fairness and preference manipulation. We nd that envy-free procedures, in particular Selfridge-Conway, are fairer and also are perceived as fairer than their proportional counterparts, despite the fact that agents very often manipulate them. Our results support the practical use of the celebrated Selfridge-Conway procedure, and more generally, of envy- free cake-cutting mechanisms. We also nd that subjects learn their opponents' preferences after repeated interaction and use this knowledge to improve their allocated share of the cake. Learning reduces truth-telling behavior, but also reduces envy.

Kyropoulou, Maria, Josué Ortega and Erel Segal-Halevi (2018), Fair Cake-Cutting in Practice, ZEW Discussion Paper No. 18-053, Mannheim, published in: Games and Economic Behavior.