Stable Matching with Uncertain Linear Preferences

Algorithmica. 2020;82(5):1410-1433. doi: 10.1007/s00453-019-00650-0. Epub 2019 Nov 14.

Abstract

We consider the two-sided stable matching setting in which there may be uncertainty about the agents' preferences due to limited information or communication. We consider three models of uncertainty: (1) lottery model-for each agent, there is a probability distribution over linear preferences, (2) compact indifference model-for each agent, a weak preference order is specified and each linear order compatible with the weak order is equally likely and (3) joint probability model-there is a lottery over preference profiles. For each of the models, we study the computational complexity of computing the stability probability of a given matching as well as finding a matching with the highest probability of being stable. We also examine more restricted problems such as deciding whether a certainly stable matching exists. We find a rich complexity landscape for these problems, indicating that the form uncertainty takes is significant.

Keywords: NP-hard problems; Polynomial-time algorithms; Stable marriage problem; Stable matchings; Uncertain preferences.