Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process where citizens directly decide how to allocate public funds among competing projects, aiming for fair and efficient resource distribution. Current research focuses on developing and analyzing voting mechanisms, including exploring the strategic behavior of project proposers and the impact of different utility functions (e.g., submodular) on allocation outcomes. Studies employ computational social choice theory, incorporating algorithms like the Method of Equal Shares and exploring axioms of fairness and proportionality, alongside experimental evaluations to assess the effectiveness and perceived fairness of various PB approaches in real-world settings. This research contributes to both theoretical understanding of fair resource allocation and the design of more effective and legitimate democratic decision-making processes.