Characterizing the ELS Values with Fixed-Population Invariance Axioms (2511.04996v1)

Abstract: We study efficient, linear, and symmetric (ELS) values, a central family of allocation rules for cooperative games with transferable-utility (TU-games) that includes the Shapley value, the CIS value, and the ENSC value. We first show that every ELS value can be written as the Shapley value of a suitably transformed TU-game. We then introduce three types of invariance axioms for fixed player populations. The first type consists of composition axioms, and the second type is active-player consistency. Each of these two types yields a characterization of a subclass of the ELS values that contains the family of least-square values. Finally, the third type is nullified-game consistency: we define three such axioms, and each axiom yields a characterization of one of the Shapley, CIS, and ENSC values.