BIG BOSS INTERVAL GAMES

Abstract

This paper introduces and studies a class of cooperative interval games suitable to model market situations with two corners where players face interval uncertainty regarding the outcome of cooperation. In one corner there is a powerful player called the big boss; the other corner contains players that need the big boss to benefit from cooperation. Various characterizations of big boss interval games are given. The interval core of a big boss interval game is explicitly described, bi-monotonic allocation schemes using interval core elements are introduced, and it is shown that each element of the interval core of a big boss interval game is extendable to such a scheme. Two value-type interval solution concepts are defined on the class of big boss interval games which generate for each such game the same interval core allocation which is extendable to a bi-monotonic interval allocation scheme.