A Combinatorial Proof for the Dowry Problem

Xujun Liu*, Olgica Milenkovic, George V. Moustakides

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book or Report/Conference proceedingConference Proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

The Secretary problem is a classical sequential decision-making question that can be succinctly described as follows: a set of rank-ordered applicants are interviewed sequentially for a single position. Once an applicant is interviewed, an immediate and irrevocable decision is made if the person is to be offered the job or not and only applicants observed so far can be used in the decision process. The problem of interest is to identify the stopping rule that maximizes the probability of hiring the highest-ranked applicant. A multiple-choice version of the Secretary problem, known as the Dowry problem, assumes that one is given a fixed integer budget for the total number of selections allowed to choose the best applicant. It has been solved using tools from dynamic programming and optimal stopping theory. We provide the first combinatorial proof for a related new query-based model for which we are allowed to solicit the response of an expert to determine if an applicant is optimal. Since the selection criteria differ from those of the Dowry problem, we obtain nonidentical expected stopping times.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2023 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, ITW 2023
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages538-543
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9798350301496
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Event2023 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, ITW 2023 - Saint-Malo, France
Duration: 23 Apr 202328 Apr 2023

Publication series

Name2023 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, ITW 2023

Conference

Conference2023 IEEE Information Theory Workshop, ITW 2023
Country/TerritoryFrance
CitySaint-Malo
Period23/04/2328/04/23

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