Issue: 2027/Vol.37/No.1, Pages 1
VULNERABILITY-BASED SCHOLARSHIP ALLOCATION WITH LOCATION-DEPENDENT SERVICE COSTS: A MIXED-INTEGER OPTIMIZATION APPROACH
Ignacio Zúñiga, Alejandro Cataldo
, Pablo A. Rey, Antoine Sauré
This is not yet the definitive version of the paper. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article.
Cite as: I. Zúñiga, A. Cataldo, P. A. Rey, Antoine~Sauré. Vulnerability-based scholarship allocation with location-dependent service costs: A mixed-integer optimization approach. Operations Research and Decisions 2027: 37(1). DOI 10.37190/ord/240440
Abstract
This paper studies a public resource allocation problem in vulnerability-based scholarship assignment with limited budgets and location-dependent service costs. We propose a mixed-integer linear programming model that integrates direct service costs, fixed location-activation costs, and stepwise service-capacity costs, while enforcing a mandatory-priority rule for highly vulnerable applicants. The approach is evaluated using a large-scale case study from the Chilean School Feeding Program (PAE), with 852,567 applicants and 1,520 institutions. Compared with the ranking-based baseline, the model increases coverage from 382,063 to 390,673 selected applicants while preserving a similar average vulnerability index (87.26 vs. 87.67). Cost-driven policies select more applicants, up to 435,522, but reduce average vulnerability to 55.76. The results show that optimization can improve coverage while maintaining vulnerability prioritization.
Keywords: Public sector, school meal benefits, scholarship assignment, service-based benefit allocation, mixed-integer programming
Received: 29 May 2026 Accepted: 29 September 2026
Published online: 29 September 2026