On Proportionally Consistent Solutions to the Divorced-Parents Problem

Abstract

When Dutch parents with children divorce, a mediator compiles a matrix with the financial needs of the children and the financial capacities of parents to meet these needs. Moreover, in case parents have children from previous marriages or are prepared to contribute to stepchildren, a bipartite graph shows which parent is financially responsible for which child. The Dutch high court ruled that the final contributions should be proportionally consistent, implying that shortages for children should be prevented if possible and any remaining parental capacities should be proportionally divided among parents responsible for the same child. Finding by hand this proportional solution is difficult for realistic court cases, as these can include several (step)parents and children. The paper on the divorced-parents problem shows that the final unique solution can be found when parents start court cases iteratively and provides efficient algorithms that can deal with large (country-size) networks.