STRONG COMPOSITION DOWN. CHARACTERIZATIONS OF NEW AND CLASSICAL BANKRUPTCY RULES

This paper is devoted to the study of claims problems. We identify the family of rules that satisfy strong composition down (robustness with respect to reevaluations of the estate) and consistency (robustness with respect to changes in the set of agents) together. We call to that family the backbone family, which is a generalization of the weighted constrained equal awards rules. In addition, once strong composition down is combined with homogeneity only the weighted constrained equal awards rules survive. We also prove that the constrained equal awards rule is the unique rules satisfying strong composition down and equal treatment of equals together.