Shapley Value
The Shapley value is a solution concept in cooperative game theory. With the value, one can determine what pay-off a participant in a coalition should receive. It tries to take the individual contribution of each participant into account.
Let’s consider the following case. There are three participants who work on a project.
First, we need to find out all possible coalitions with their value.
Coalition | Value of the coalition |
v({A}) | 12 |
v({B}) | 6 |
v({C}) | 9 |
v({A, B}) | 24 |
v({A, C}) | 27 |
v({B, C}) | 15 |
v({A, B, C}) | 36 |
v({o}) | 0 |
Algorithm
- First, we make a list of all orders of participants.
- For every order, we determine the value of the coalition consisting of the participants that come before participant i. This value is V-i.
- For every order, we determine the value of the coalition consisting of the participants, including i. This value is Vi+.
- Calculate marginal contribution Mi = W+I – W-i
- Calculate average over all Mi.
Contribution of player B
Order | v({participant before B}) | v({participants including B}) | Marginal contribution participant B |
A, B, C | v({A}) = 12 | v({A, B}) = 24 | 24-12 = 12 |
A, C, B | v({A, C}) = 27 | v({A, C, B}) = 36 | 36-27 = 9 |
B, A, C | v({o}) = 0 | v({B}) = 6 | 6-0 = 6 |
B, C, A | v({o}) = 0 | v({B}) = 6 | 6-0 = 6 |
C, A, B | v({A, C}) = 27 | v({A, C, B}) = 36 | 36-27= 9 |
C, B, A | v({C}) = 15 | v({C, B}) = 15 | 15-9 = 6 |
Shapley Value player B: SB = (12+9+6+6+9+6)/6 = 8
We do the same for players A and C.
SA = 17
SC = 11