The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations
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| Language: | English |
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Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK
2021
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| Online Access: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1625420687073004 |
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ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-oberlin16254206870730042021-08-03T07:17:44Z The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations Ikeokwu, Christian Computer Science Economic Theory Algorithmic game theory Auction theory Development economics Mutual aid Price of anarchy Mutual aid groups often serve as informal financial organizations that don’t rely on any central authority or legal framework to resolve disputes. Rotating savings and credit associations (roscas) are informal financial organizations common in settings where communities have reduced access to formal financial institutions. In a Rosca, a fixed group of participants regularly contribute small sums of money to a pool. This pool is then allocated periodically typically using lotteries or auction mechanisms. Roscas are empirically well-studied in the development economics literature. Due to their dynamic nature, however, roscas have proven challenging to examine theoretically. Theoretical analyses within economics have made strong assumptions about features such as the number or homogeneity of participants, the information they possess, their value for saving across time, or the number of rounds. This work presents an algorithmic study of roscas. We use techniques from the price of anarchy in auctions to characterize their welfare properties under less restrictive assumptions than previous work. We also give a comprehensive theoretical study of the various Rosca formats. Using the smoothness framework of Syrgkanis and Tardos [46] and other techniques we show that the most common Rosca formats have welfare within a constant factor of the best possible. This evidence further rationalizes these organizations’ prevalence as a vehicle for mutual aid. Roscas present many further questions where algorithmic game theory may be helpful; we discuss several promising directions. 2021-07-30 English text Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1625420687073004 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1625420687073004 unrestricted This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws. |
| collection |
NDLTD |
| language |
English |
| sources |
NDLTD |
| topic |
Computer Science Economic Theory Algorithmic game theory Auction theory Development economics Mutual aid Price of anarchy |
| spellingShingle |
Computer Science Economic Theory Algorithmic game theory Auction theory Development economics Mutual aid Price of anarchy Ikeokwu, Christian The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| author |
Ikeokwu, Christian |
| author_facet |
Ikeokwu, Christian |
| author_sort |
Ikeokwu, Christian |
| title |
The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| title_short |
The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| title_full |
The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| title_fullStr |
The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| title_full_unstemmed |
The Mathematics of Mutual Aid: Robust Welfare Guarantees for Decentralized Financial Organizations |
| title_sort |
mathematics of mutual aid: robust welfare guarantees for decentralized financial organizations |
| publisher |
Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK |
| publishDate |
2021 |
| url |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1625420687073004 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT ikeokwuchristian themathematicsofmutualaidrobustwelfareguaranteesfordecentralizedfinancialorganizations AT ikeokwuchristian mathematicsofmutualaidrobustwelfareguaranteesfordecentralizedfinancialorganizations |
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