C. Boyle. The Statistician, 47 (2):
291--321(1998)Organizations select people to receive benefits in a way which is efficient to them but may not be fair to those selected or rejected. This paper elaborates on the concept of fairness-that it should be efficient, not waste the efforts of the candidates; that it should treat as equals all those who are not measurably different; that the process of selection should avoid bias and corruption. Lotteries have been used in the past partly to avoid corruption. Some examples of lottery-type selection remain today, such as juries. This paper examines the case for the deliberate introduction of a lottery as part of the selection process to approximate to the uncertainty in measuring the merits of the candidates. The advantages of such a lottery, particularly where decisions are devolved down to the community level, are discussed..