A procedure that can make dividing anything fair and envy-free – and which was devised by
Alan Taylor, the Marie Louise Bailey Professor of Mathematics, and Steve Brams, a political scientist at New York University-was the subject of an eight-page article in the March
issue of Discover magazine.
The article, titled “Dividing the Spoils,” says the two professors, working together over the past two years, “have figured out an equitable way to divide the world's goods-tangible or not-that's mathematically guaranteed to do everyone justice.”
Taylor and Brams published their procedure in the January 1995 American Mathematical Monthly. Their new book, to be published later this year, explains everything a layperson might need to know about fair division, the article notes.
The magazine article said the book “illustrates various ways to apply this new technique (and several others) to divorce settlements, inheritance squabbles, treaty negotiations, wage disputes, and many other knotty problems, including the fair distribution of 'bads,' such as taxes and household chores.”