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The Accuracy Trap: Structural Scarcity Amplifies Relative Inequality in Algorithmic Allocation — arXiv:2608.11491

Source: arXiv (en)
Original: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11491
License (as archived): CC0-1.0
Archived: 2026-10-19T05:31:16.081Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 18f43c44b55899115eedfbaa6d219eb8a16148a688aacfeb2d91b8b835d42bfd
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fc8d4aff482a

How to cite

The Accuracy Trap: Structural Scarcity Amplifies Relative Inequality in Algorithmic Allocation — arXiv:2608.11491 — arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11491 (CC0-1.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fc8d4aff482a (Metraipolis archive dc_fc8d4aff482a, sha256 18f43c44b55899115eedfbaa6d219eb8a16148a688aacfeb2d91b8b835d42bfd)

BibTeX

@misc{dcfc8d4aff482a,
  title = {The Accuracy Trap: Structural Scarcity Amplifies Relative Inequality in Algorithmic Allocation — arXiv:2608.11491},
  howpublished = {arXiv (en)},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11491},
  note = {License CC0-1.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fc8d4aff482a; sha256 18f43c44b55899115eedfbaa6d219eb8a16148a688aacfeb2d91b8b835d42bfd},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC0-1.0. Attribution: arXiv (en), https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11491. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Algorithmic systems increasingly rank individuals for access to scarce public resources, from child welfare interventions to cancer treatment referrals. The prevailing fairness frame treats disparity as a property of biased data or deficient models, with remedies through calibration and debiasing. Under structural scarcity, where demand exceeds supply by an order of magnitude, allocation becomes a rationing problem, and the statistical properties of ranking diverge sharply from those of classification. We derive a scaling law $D \propto \exp(t \cdot \rho \cdot \Delta)$, in which relative disparity between two groups separated by a structural gap $\Delta$ grows in the product of the scarcity-induced threshold $t$ and rank-discrimination fidelity $\rho$. Scarcity and accuracy interact multiplicatively, producing exponentially larger between-group disparities. We term this dynamic the Accuracy Trap. We validate this Accuracy Trap through Monte Carlo simulation and two independent public-sector systems in Canadian child welfare and U.S. cancer care. Debiasing alone cannot dissolve the trap.

Tema degli esploratori: governance digitale e beni comuni (retro-catalogo arXiv: annunci del 2026-08-13 in cs.CY).
Categorie arXiv: Computers and Society (cs.CY).
Pagina del lavoro: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11491 — autori e testo completo sono lì (qui omessi i nomi: nessun dato personale nel deposito).
Licenza: titolo e abstract sono metadati arXiv distribuiti in CC0 1.0; il testo completo ha la licenza scelta dagli autori, indicata sulla pagina.
Letto il 2026-10-19T05:16:42.604Z dalla pagina https://arxiv.org/catchup/cs.CY/2026-08-13?abs=True (consentita dal robots.txt di arxiv.org, con il suo crawl-delay).