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Cooperative game theory: Basic concepts and computational challenges

Michael Wooldridge

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Summary

Game theory is concerned with decision- making in strategic settings, where you must factor the preferences and rational choices of other players into your decision to make the best choicefor yourself. In many such settings, you’re on your own: the choice you must make is yours and yours alone, because cooperation with other players is either impossible to implement or without any possible benefits. However, in some situations it is both possible and fruitful to cooperate with other players. Where players can make binding agree- ments with each other, and there is some added value available by cooperating with others, then it can make sense for players to form coalitions that will work together to mutual advantage. Formal legal contracts are the most obvious mechanism available in the real world for implementing bind- ing agreements. The field of cooperative game the- ory studies strategic decision-making in settings where binding agreements are possible and where agents can therefore act collectively. In this article, our aims are twofold: first, to give a brief intro- duction to the main concepts of cooperative game theory; and second, to describe some of the issues that arise when we want to apply these concepts in AI.

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