A new index of power for simple n-person games

Abstract

Measures of (a priori) power play a useful role in assessing the character of interpersonal interaction found in collective decision making bodies. We propose and axiomatically characterize an alternative power index to the familiar Shapley/Shubik and Banzhaf indices which can be used for such purposes. The index presented is shown to be unique for the class of simple n-person games. By subsequent generalization of the index and its axioms to the class of n-person games in characteristic function form we obtain an analog to the Shapley value. © 1978 Physica-Verlag.