8,232 research outputs found
Average Weights and Power in Weighted Voting Games
We investigate a class of weighted voting games for which weights are
randomly distributed over the standard probability simplex. We provide
close-formed formulae for the expectation and density of the distribution of
weight of the -th largest player under the uniform distribution. We analyze
the average voting power of the -th largest player and its dependence on the
quota, obtaining analytical and numerical results for small values of and a
general theorem about the functional form of the relation between the average
Penrose--Banzhaf power index and the quota for the uniform measure on the
simplex. We also analyze the power of a collectivity to act (Coleman efficiency
index) of random weighted voting games, obtaining analytical upper bounds
therefor.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Representation-Compatible Power Indices
This paper studies power indices based on average representations of a
weighted game. If restricted to account for the lack of power of dummy voters,
average representations become coherent measures of voting power, with power
distributions being proportional to the distribution of weights in the average
representation. This makes these indices representation-compatible, a property
not fulfilled by classical power indices. Average representations can be
tailored to reveal the equivalence classes of voters defined by the Isbell
desirability relation, which leads to a pair of new power indices that ascribes
equal power to all members of an equivalence class.Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, and 11 table
On the inverse power index problem
Weighted voting games are frequently used in decision making. Each voter has
a weight and a proposal is accepted if the weight sum of the supporting voters
exceeds a quota. One line of research is the efficient computation of so-called
power indices measuring the influence of a voter. We treat the inverse problem:
Given an influence vector and a power index, determine a weighted voting game
such that the distribution of influence among the voters is as close as
possible to the given target value. We present exact algorithms and
computational results for the Shapley-Shubik and the (normalized) Banzhaf power
index.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures, 12 table
Measuring voting power in convex policy spaces
Classical power index analysis considers the individual's ability to
influence the aggregated group decision by changing its own vote, where all
decisions and votes are assumed to be binary. In many practical applications we
have more options than either "yes" or "no". Here we generalize three important
power indices to continuous convex policy spaces. This allows the analysis of a
collection of economic problems like e.g. tax rates or spending that otherwise
would not be covered in binary models.Comment: 31 pages, 9 table
Computing Classical Power Indices For Large Finite Voting Games.
Voting Power Indices enable the analysis of the distribution of power in a legislature or voting body in which different members have different numbers of votes. Although this approach to the measurement of power, based on co-operative game theory, has been known for a long time its empirical application has been to some extent limited, in part by the difficulty of computing the indices when there are many players. This paper presents new algorithms for computing the classical power indices, those of Shapley and Shubik (1954) and of Banzhaf (1963), which are essentially modifications of approximation methods due to Owen, and have been shown to work well in real applications.VOTING ; INDEXES ; GAMES
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