Cooperative games in effectiveness form

The primary vehicle for the analysis of cooperative games has been the characteristicfunction form. This paper seeks to point out certain deficiencies inherent in a characteristic-function type of representation for some cooperative games. A more general form, the effectiveness form, is proposed to correct the inadequacies of the characteristic-function representation. In addition, concepts of stability for effectiveness-form games are suggested; and some examples are studied. Section 2 establishes notation and introduces some basic definitions and references. In Section 3 the rationale for the effectiveness form is discussed. A formal description of the form is presented in Section 4. Section 5 deals with some possible concepts of stability. Section 6 analyzes a few examples of interest.