IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v58y2010i4-part-2p1051-1056.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sharing Supermodular Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas S. Schulz

    (Sloan School of Management and Operations Research Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139)

  • Nelson A. Uhan

    (School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907)

Abstract

We study cooperative games with supermodular costs. We show that supermodular costs arise in a variety of situations; in particular, we show that the problem of minimizing a linear function over a supermodular polyhedron---a problem that often arises in combinatorial optimization---has supermodular optimal costs. In addition, we examine the computational complexity of the least core and least core value of supermodular cost cooperative games. We show that the problem of computing the least core value of these games is strongly NP-hard and, in fact, is inapproximable within a factor strictly less than 17/16 unless P = NP. For a particular class of supermodular cost cooperative games that arises from a scheduling problem, we show that the Shapley value---which, in this case, is computable in polynomial time---is in the least core, while computing the least core value is NP-hard.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas S. Schulz & Nelson A. Uhan, 2010. "Sharing Supermodular Costs," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(4-part-2), pages 1051-1056, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:58:y:2010:i:4-part-2:p:1051-1056
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1100.0841
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1100.0841
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1100.0841?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maniquet, Francois, 2003. "A characterization of the Shapley value in queueing problems," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 90-103, March.
    2. Ehud Kalai & Eitan Zemel, 1982. "Totally Balanced Games and Games of Flow," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(3), pages 476-478, August.
    3. Debasis Mishra & Bharath Rangarajan, 2007. "Cost sharing in a job scheduling problem," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 29(3), pages 369-382, October.
    4. Walter Kern & Daniël Paulusma, 2003. "Matching Games: The Least Core and the Nucleolus," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(2), pages 294-308, May.
    5. M. Maschler & B. Peleg & L. S. Shapley, 1979. "Geometric Properties of the Kernel, Nucleolus, and Related Solution Concepts," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 4(4), pages 303-338, November.
    6. Hartman, Bruce C. & Dror, Moshe & Shaked, Moshe, 2000. "Cores of Inventory Centralization Games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 26-49, April.
    7. Ulrich Faigle & Walter Kern & Daniël Paulusma, 2000. "Note on the computational complexity of least core concepts for min-cost spanning tree games," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 52(1), pages 23-38, September.
    8. Jeroen Kuipers & Ulrich Faigle & Walter Kern, 2001. "On the computation of the nucleolus of a cooperative game," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 30(1), pages 79-98.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michela Chessa & Nobuyuki Hanaki & Aymeric Lardon & Takashi Yamada, 2022. "An experiment on the Nash program: Comparing two strategic mechanisms implementing the Shapley value," ISER Discussion Paper 1175, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University.
    2. Chessa, Michela & Hanaki, Nobuyuki & Lardon, Aymeric & Yamada, Takashi, 2023. "An experiment on the Nash program: A comparison of two strategic mechanisms implementing the Shapley value," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 88-104.
    3. Simai He & Jiawei Zhang & Shuzhong Zhang, 2012. "Polymatroid Optimization, Submodularity, and Joint Replenishment Games," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 60(1), pages 128-137, February.
    4. Nguyen, Tri-Dung & Thomas, Lyn, 2016. "Finding the nucleoli of large cooperative games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(3), pages 1078-1092.
    5. Kenneth Judd & Garrett van Ryzin, 2010. "Preface to the Special Issue on Computational Economics," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(4-part-2), pages 1035-1036, August.
    6. Lindong Liu & Xiangtong Qi & Zhou Xu, 2016. "Computing Near-Optimal Stable Cost Allocations for Cooperative Games by Lagrangian Relaxation," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 687-702, November.
    7. Uhan, Nelson A., 2015. "Stochastic linear programming games with concave preferences," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 243(2), pages 637-646.
    8. Lindong Liu & Yuqian Zhou & Zikang Li, 2022. "Lagrangian heuristic for simultaneous subsidization and penalization: implementations on rooted travelling salesman games," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 95(1), pages 81-99, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lindong Liu & Xiangtong Qi & Zhou Xu, 2016. "Computing Near-Optimal Stable Cost Allocations for Cooperative Games by Lagrangian Relaxation," INFORMS Journal on Computing, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 687-702, November.
    2. Walter Kern & Daniël Paulusma, 2009. "On the Core and f -Nucleolus of Flow Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 34(4), pages 981-991, November.
    3. Peter Biro & Walter Kern & Daniel Paulusma, 2011. "Computing Solutions for Matching Games," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1142, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    4. Drechsel, J. & Kimms, A., 2010. "Computing core allocations in cooperative games with an application to cooperative procurement," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 310-321, November.
    5. Péter Biró & Walter Kern & Daniël Paulusma, 2012. "Computing solutions for matching games," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 41(1), pages 75-90, February.
    6. Nguyen, Tri-Dung & Thomas, Lyn, 2016. "Finding the nucleoli of large cooperative games," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 248(3), pages 1078-1092.
    7. Tamas Solymosi & Balazs Sziklai, 2015. "Universal Characterization Sets for the Nucleolus in Balanced Games," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1512, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    8. René Brink & Youngsub Chun, 2012. "Balanced consistency and balanced cost reduction for sequencing problems," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 38(3), pages 519-529, March.
    9. Michel Le Breton & Juan Moreno-Ternero & Alexei Savvateev & Shlomo Weber, 2013. "Stability and fairness in models with a multiple membership," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 42(3), pages 673-694, August.
    10. Ju, Yuan & Chun, Youngsub & van den Brink, René, 2014. "Auctioning and selling positions: A non-cooperative approach to queueing conflicts," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 33-45.
    11. Daniel Granot & Jeroen Kuipers & Sunil Chopra, 2002. "Cost Allocation for a Tree Network with Heterogeneous Customers," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 647-661, November.
    12. Alex Gershkov & Paul Schweinzer, 2010. "When queueing is better than push and shove," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 39(3), pages 409-430, July.
    13. Debasis Mishra & Bharath Rangarajan, 2007. "Cost sharing in a job scheduling problem," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 29(3), pages 369-382, October.
    14. Béal, Sylvain & Ferrières, Sylvain & Rémila, Eric & Solal, Philippe, 2016. "Axiomatic characterizations under players nullification," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 47-57.
    15. Banerjee, Sreoshi, 2024. "On identifying efficient, fair and stable allocations in "generalized" sequencing games," MPRA Paper 120188, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Shoshana Anily & Moshe Haviv, 2010. "Cooperation in Service Systems," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(3), pages 660-673, June.
    17. Vijay V. Vazirani, 2022. "New Characterizations of Core Imputations of Matching and $b$-Matching Games," Papers 2202.00619, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    18. Fan Zhang & Pramode Verma, 2011. "Pricing multi-class network services using the Shapley Value," Netnomics, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 61-75, April.
    19. Elena Iñarra & Roberto Serrano & Ken-Ichi Shimomura, 2020. "The Nucleolus, the Kernel, and the Bargaining Set: An Update," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 71(2), pages 225-266.
    20. Demetrescu, Camil & Lupia, Francesco & Mendicelli, Angelo & Ribichini, Andrea & Scarcello, Francesco & Schaerf, Marco, 2019. "On the Shapley value and its application to the Italian VQR research assessment exercise," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 87-104.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:58:y:2010:i:4-part-2:p:1051-1056. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.