TY - JOUR
T1 - The average tree solution for cooperative games with communication structure.
AU - Herings, P.J.J.
AU - van der Laan, G.
AU - Talman, A.J.J.
AU - Zang, Z.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - We study cooperative games with communication structure, represented by an undirected graph. Players in the game are able to cooperate only if they can form a network in the graph. A single-valued solution, the average tree solution, is proposed for this class of games. The average tree solution is defined to be the average of all these payoff vectors. It is shown that if a game has a complete communication structure, then the proposed solution coincides with the Shapley value, and that if the game has a cycle-free communication structure, it is the solution proposed by Herings, van der Laan and Talman in 2008. We introduce the notion of link-convexity, under which the game is shown to have a non-empty core and the average tree solution lies in the core. In general, link-convexity is weaker than convexity. For games with a cycle-free communication structure, link-convexity is even weaker than super-additivity. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
AB - We study cooperative games with communication structure, represented by an undirected graph. Players in the game are able to cooperate only if they can form a network in the graph. A single-valued solution, the average tree solution, is proposed for this class of games. The average tree solution is defined to be the average of all these payoff vectors. It is shown that if a game has a complete communication structure, then the proposed solution coincides with the Shapley value, and that if the game has a cycle-free communication structure, it is the solution proposed by Herings, van der Laan and Talman in 2008. We introduce the notion of link-convexity, under which the game is shown to have a non-empty core and the average tree solution lies in the core. In general, link-convexity is weaker than convexity. For games with a cycle-free communication structure, link-convexity is even weaker than super-additivity. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
U2 - 10.1016/j.geb.2009.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.geb.2009.10.002
M3 - Article
SN - 0899-8256
VL - 68
SP - 626
EP - 633
JO - Games and Economic Behavior
JF - Games and Economic Behavior
ER -