A tight negative example for MMS fair allocations

Abstract: We consider the problem of allocating indivisible goods to agents with additive valuation functions. Kurokawa, Procaccia and Wang {[JACM, 2018]} present instances for which every allocation gives some agent less than her maximin share. We present such examples with larger gaps. For three agents and nine items, we design an instance in which at least one agent does not get more than a $\frac{39}{40}$ fraction of her maximin share. {Moreover, we show that there is no negative example in which the difference between the number of items and the number of agents is smaller than six, and that the gap (of $\frac{1}{40}$) of our example is worst possible among all instances with nine items.} For $n \ge 4$ agents, we show examples in which at least one agent does not get more than a $1 - \frac{1}{n^4}$ fraction of her maximin share. {In the instances designed by Kurokawa, Procaccia and Wang, the gap is exponentially small in $n$.} Our proof techniques extend to allocation of chores (items of negative value), though the quantitative bounds for chores are different from those for goods. For three agents and nine chores, we design an instance in which the MMS gap is $\frac{1}{43}$.