Divide and choose

Divide and choose (also cut and choose or I cut, you choose) is a procedure for fair division of a continuous resource between two parties. It involves a heterogeneous good or resource and two partners who have different preferences over parts of the cake (both want as much of it as possible). The procedure proceeds as follows: one person divides the resource into two pieces; the other person selects one of the pieces; the cutter receives the remaining piece.

Since ancient times some have used the procedure to divide land, food and other resources between two parties. Currently, there is an entire field of research, called fair cake-cutting, devoted to various extensions and generalizations of cut-and-choose. Divide and choose is envy-free in the following sense: each of the two partners can act in a way that guarantees that, according to their own subjective taste, their allocated share is at least as valuable as the other share, regardless of what the other partner does.