Core (game theory) 2026-10-06
The core consists of efficient payoff vectors for which each coalition receives at least its own attainable value. Thus no coalition can improve every member's payoff by leaving. It is a convex set defined by linear constraints, but can be empty. Every convex cooperative game has a nonempty core because each marginal contribution vector belongs to it.
True, with the usual normalization . For a convex cooperative game, the supermodular inequality implies increasing marginal contributions: if and , apply it to and to obtain
Fix an ordering and let be the set of players before . Its marginal contribution vector is . Summing in order telescopes to . For any coalition , , so increasing marginals give
These are exactly the efficiency and coalition constraints of the core of a cooperative game. Thus every marginal contribution vector is in the core. The core is a convex set, being an intersection of linear half-spaces and an efficiency hyperplane. The Shapley value is the average of the marginal contribution vectors over all orderings, so it too lies in the core. This proves Shapley value belongs to the core of a convex game, without needing a separate existence theorem for the core.
Increasing marginal contributions imply for . Summing telescopes to , while efficiency follows by telescoping over the full ordering. Hence every marginal contribution vector is in the core of a cooperative game. The core is a convex set, so their average, the Shapley value, is in it too. This gives an elementary proof of nonemptiness and stability for a convex cooperative game.