6728 2018 eng 165 170 6 conferenceobject Springer International Publishing 0 2018-05-26 -- -- Branching rules are an integral component of the branch-and-bound algorithm typically used to solve mixed-integer programs and subject to intense research. Different approaches for branching are typically compared based on the solving time as well as the size of the branch-and-bound tree needed to prove optimality. The latter, however, has some flaws when it comes to sophisticated branching rules that do not only try to take a good branching decision, but have additional side-effects. We propose a new measure for the quality of a branching rule that distinguishes tree size reductions obtained by better branching decisions from those obtained by such side-effects. It is evaluated for common branching rules providing new insights in the importance of strong branching. Operations Research Proceedings 2017 10.1007/978-3-319-89920-6_23 yes urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-64722 2017-11-10 Gerald Gamrath Gerald Gamrath Christoph Schubert Mathematical Optimization Mathematical Optimization Methods Gamrath, Gerald ASTfSCM MIP-ZIBOPT MODAL-SynLab Siemens MODAL-Gesamt Applied Optimization