Machine learningGame-theoretic

Top Trading Cycles

Top Trading Cycles (TTC) is an algorithm for allocating indivisible goods to agents such that the allocation is Pareto efficient and individually rational. Developed by Lloyd Shapley and Herbert Scarf in 1974, the algorithm identifies cycles of trades in a preference digraph, executes those trades, and iteratively repeats until no further trades are beneficial. TTC is widely used in kidney exchange and housing allocation due to its efficiency and implementation simplicity.

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Sources

  1. Shapley, L. S., & Scarf, H. (1974). On cores and indivisibility. Journal of Mathematical Economics, 1(1), 23-37. DOI: 10.1016/0304-4068(74)90033-0
  2. Roth, A. E., Sönmez, T., & Ünver, M. U. (2008). Efficient kidney exchange: Coincidence of wants in markets with compatibility. American Economic Review, 97(3), 828-851. DOI: 10.1257/aer.97.3.828

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Referenced by

ScholarGateTop Trading Cycles (Top Trading Cycles and Chains). Retrieved 2026-06-04 from https://scholargate.app/en/game-theory/top-trading-cycles