We describe a perturbation method that can be used to reduce the problem of
finding the multivariate generating function (MGF) of a non-simple polytope to
computing the MGF of simple polytopes. We then construct a perturbation that
works for any transportation polytope. We apply this perturbation to the family
of central transportation polytopes of order kn x n, and obtain formulas for
the MGFs of the feasible cone of each vertex of the polytope and the MGF of the
polytope. The formulas we obtain are enumerated by combinatorial objects. A
special case of the formulas recovers the results on Birkhoff polytopes given
by the author and De Loera and Yoshida. We also recover the formula for the
number of maximum vertices of transportation polytopes of order kn x n.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures. To appear in Journal of Combinatorial Theory
Ser.