The core of games on distributive lattices : how to share benefits in a hierarchy

Finding a solution concept is one of the central problems in cooperative game theory, and the notion of core is the most popular solution concept since it is based on some rationality condition. In many real situations, not all possible coalitions can form, so that classical TU-games cannot be used. An interesting case is when possible coalitions are defined through a partial ordering of the players (or hierarchy). Then feasible coalitions correspond to teams of players, that is, one or several players with all their subordinates. In these situations, it is not obvious to define a suitable notion of core, reflecting the team structure, and previous attempts are not satisfactory in this respect. We propose a new notion of core, which imposes efficiency of the allocation at each level of the hierarchy, and answers the problem of sharing benefits in a hierarchy. We show that the core we defined has properties very close to the classical case, with respect to marginal vectors, the Weber set, and balancedness.Cooperative game, feasible coalition, core, hierarchy.

Ensuring the boundedness of the core of games with restricted cooperation

The core of a cooperative game on a set of players N is one of the most popular concept of solution. When cooperation is restricted (feasible coalitions form a subcollection F of 2N), the core may become unbounded, which makes it usage questionable in practice. Our proposal is to make the core bounded by turning some of the inequalities defining the core into equalities (additional efficiency constraints). We address the following mathematical problem : can we find a minimal set of inequalities in the core such that, if turned into equalities, the core becomes bounded ? The new core obtained is called the restricted core. We completely solve the question when F is a distributive lattice, introducing also the notion of restricted Weber set. We show that the case of regular set systems amounts more or less to the case of distributive lattices. We also study the case of weakly union-closed systems and give some results for the general case.Cooperative game, core, restricted cooperation, bounded core, Weber set.

The core of games on k-regular set systems

In the classical setting of cooperative game theory, it is always assumed that all coalitions are feasible. However in many real situations, there are restrictions on the set of coalitions, for example duo to communication, order or hierarchy on the set of players, etc. There are already many works dealing with games on restricted set of coalitions, defining many different structures for the set of feasible coalitions, called set systems. We propose in this paper to consider k-regular set systems, that is, set systems having all maximal chains of the same length k. This is somehow related to communication graphs. We study in this perspective the core of games defined on k-regular set systems. We show that the core may be unbounded and without vertices in some situations.Cooperative game ; feasible coalition ; core

Capacities and Games on Lattices: A Survey of Result

We provide a survey of recent developments about capacities (or fuzzy measures) and ccoperative games in characteristic form, when they are defined on more general structures than the usual power set of the universal set, namely lattices. In a first part, we give various possible interpretations and applications of these general concepts, and then we elaborate about the possible definitions of usual tools in these theories, such as the Choquet integral, the Möbius transform, and the Shapley value.capacity, fuzzy measure, game, lattice, Choquet integral,Shapley value

Entropy of capacities on lattices and set systems

We propose a definition for the entropy of capacities defined on lattices. Classical capacities are monotone set functions and can be seen as a generalization of probability measures. Capacities on lattices address the general case where the family of subsets is not necessarily the Boolean lattice of all subsets. Our definition encompasses the classical definition of Shannon for probability measures, as well as the entropy of Marichal defined for classical capacities. Some properties and examples are given

The restricted core of games on distributive lattices: how to share benefits in a hierarchy

ED EPSInternational audienceFinding a solution concept is one of the central problems in cooperative game theory, and the notion of core is the most popular solution concept since it is based on some rationality condition. In many real situations, not all possible coalitions can form, so that classical TU-games cannot be used. An interesting case is when possible coalitions are defined through a partial ordering of the players (or hierarchy). Then feasible coalitions correspond to teams of players, that is, one or several players with all their subordinates. In these situations, the core in its usual formulation may be unbounded, making its use difficult in practice. We propose a new notion of core, called the restricted core, which imposes efficiency of the allocation at each level of the hierarchy, is always bounded, and answers the problem of sharing benefits in a hierarchy. We show that the core we defined has properties very close to the classical case, with respect to marginal vectors, the Weber set, and balancedness

The lattice of embedded subsets

In cooperative game theory, games in partition function form are real-valued function on the set of so-called embedded coalitions, that is, pairs $(S,\pi)$ where $S$ is a subset (coalition) of the set $N$ of players, and $\pi$ is a partition of $N$ containing $S$. Despite the fact that many studies have been devoted to such games, surprisingly nobody clearly defined a structure (i.e., an order) on embedded coalitions, resulting in scattered and divergent works, lacking unification and proper analysis. The aim of the paper is to fill this gap, thus to study the structure of embedded coalitions (called here embedded subsets), and the properties of games in partition function form.Partition; Embedded subset; Game; Valuation; k-monotonicity

An algebraic framework for the greedy algorithm with applications to the core and Weber set of cooperative games

An algebraic model generalizing submodular polytopes is presented, where modular functions on partially ordered sets take over the role of vectors in ${\mathbb R}^n$. This model unifies various generalizations of combinatorial models in which the greedy algorithm and the Monge algorithm are successful and generalizations of the notions of core and Weber set in cooperative game theory. As a further application, we show that an earlier model of ours as well as the algorithmic model of Queyranne, Spieksma and Tardella for the Monge algorithm can be treated within the framework of usual matroid theory (on unordered ground-sets), which permits also the efficient algorithmic solution of the intersection problem within this model. \u

Games on lattices, multichoice games and the Shapley value: a new approach

Multichoice games have been introduced by Hsiao and Raghavan as a generalization of classical cooperative games. An important notion in cooperative game theory is the core of the game, as it contains the rational imputations for players. We propose two definitions for the core of a multichoice game, the first one is called the precore and is a direct generalization of the classical definition. We show that the precore coincides with the definition proposed by Faigle, and that it contains unbounded imputations, which makes its application questionable. A second definition is proposed, imposing normalization at each level, causing the core to be a convex closed set. We study its properties, introducing balancedness and marginal worth vectors, and defining the Weber set and the pre-Weber set. We show that the classical properties of inclusion of the (pre)core into the (pre)-Weber set as well as their equality remain valid. A last section makes a comparison with the core defined by van den Nouweland et al.multichoice game ; lattice ; core

Values on regular games under Kirchhoff’s laws

In cooperative game theory, the Shapley value is a central notion defining a rational way to share the total worth of a game among players. In this paper, we address a general framework leading to applications to games with communication graphs, where the set of feasible coalitions forms a poset where all maximal chains have the same length. We first show that previous definitions and axiomatizations of the Shapley value proprosed by Faigle and Kern, and Bilbao and Edelman still work. Our main contribution is then to propose a new axiomatization avoiding the hierarchical strength axiom of Faigle and Kern, and considering a new way to define the symmetry among players. Borrowing ideas from electric networks theory, we show that our symmetry axiom and the classical efficiency axiom correspond actually to the two Kirchhoff’s laws in the resistor circuit associated to the Hasse diagram of feasible coalitions. We finally work out a weak form of the monotonicity axiom which is satisfied by the proposed value.Regular set systems; regular games; Shapley value; probabilistic efficient values; regular values; Kirchhoff’s laws.