Introduction

Abstract

One of the simplest yet most fruitful paradigms in cooperative game theory is the pure bargaining problem, in which a group of two or more participants is faced with a set of feasible outcomes, any one of which will be the result if it is specified by the unanimous agreement of all the participants. In the event that no unanimous agreement is reached, a given disagreement outcome is the result. If there are feasible outcomes which all the participants prefer to the disagreement outcome, then there is an incentive to reach an agreement; however, so long as at least two of the participants differ over which outcome is most preferable, there is a need for bargaining and negotiation over which outcome should be agreed upon. Each participant has the ability to veto any outcome different than the disagreement outcome, since unanimity is required for any other result.