Consistent and covariant solutions for TU games

Abstract.

One of the important properties characterizing cooperative game solutions is consistency. This notion establishes connections between the solution vectors of a cooperative game and those of its reduced game. The last one is obtained from the initial game by removing one or more players and by giving them the payoffs according to a specific principle (e.g. a proposed payoff vector). Consistency of a solution means that the restriction of a solution payoff vector of the initial game to any coalition belongs to the solution set of the corresponding reduced game. There are several definitions of the reduced games (cf., e.g., the survey of T. Driessen [2]) based on some intuitively acceptable characteristics. In the paper some natural properties of reduced games are formulated, and general forms of the reduced games possessing some of them are given. The efficient, anonymous, covariant TU cooperative game solutions satisfying the consistency property with respect to any reduced game are described.