Cooperative game
A game described by what each group of players can achieve together rather than by the individual moves available to them, with binding agreements assumed possible.
Often misread asTaking cooperative to describe the players' attitude, so the model is thought to be about people who want to get along and the non cooperative model about people who do not.
How to see it
Not friendly players, enforceable agreements
The same situation can be modelled two ways. The non cooperative model asks who moves when and what each person picks. The cooperative model skips all of that, assumes any agreement reached can be enforced, and asks only what each group could achieve and how the proceeds ought to be divided.
The checkIt is about whether binding agreements are available. Players in a cooperative game are every bit as self interested; they simply cannot renege.
Try itA cartel carves up a market. Ask whether a member who breaks ranks can be made to pay. If yes, a cooperative model is defensible. If no, the interesting question is whether cheating pays, and you are back in non cooperative territory.
Know these first
Leads on to
Easily confused with
Sources
- von Neumann, J. & Morgenstern, O. (1944). Princeton UP.
- Osborne, M. & Rubinstein, A. (1994). MIT Press.
- Maschler, M., Solan, E. and Zamir, S. (2013). Game Theory. Cambridge University Press.