Cost-sharing in Parking Games

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Elder, Jennifer, Harris, Pamela E., Kretschmann, Jan, Mori, J. Carlos Martínez
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Elder, Jennifer
Harris, Pamela E.
Kretschmann, Jan
Mori, J. Carlos Martínez
author_facet Elder, Jennifer
Harris, Pamela E.
Kretschmann, Jan
Mori, J. Carlos Martínez
contents In this paper, we study the total displacement statistic of parking functions from the perspective of cooperative game theory. We introduce parking games, which are coalitional cost-sharing games in characteristic function form derived from the total displacement statistic. We show that parking games are supermodular cost-sharing games, indicating that cooperation is difficult (i.e., their core is empty). Next, we study their Shapley value, which formalizes a notion of "fair" cost-sharing and amounts to charging each car for its expected marginal displacement under a random arrival order. Our main contribution is a polynomial-time algorithm to compute the Shapley value of parking games, in contrast with known hardness results on computing the Shapley value of arbitrary games. The algorithm leverages the permutation-invariance of total displacement, combinatorial enumeration, and dynamic programming. We conclude with open questions around an alternative solution concept for supermodular cost-sharing games and connections to other areas in combinatorics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_12265
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cost-sharing in Parking Games
Elder, Jennifer
Harris, Pamela E.
Kretschmann, Jan
Mori, J. Carlos Martínez
Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
Computer Science and Game Theory
05A05, 91A12, 91A46
In this paper, we study the total displacement statistic of parking functions from the perspective of cooperative game theory. We introduce parking games, which are coalitional cost-sharing games in characteristic function form derived from the total displacement statistic. We show that parking games are supermodular cost-sharing games, indicating that cooperation is difficult (i.e., their core is empty). Next, we study their Shapley value, which formalizes a notion of "fair" cost-sharing and amounts to charging each car for its expected marginal displacement under a random arrival order. Our main contribution is a polynomial-time algorithm to compute the Shapley value of parking games, in contrast with known hardness results on computing the Shapley value of arbitrary games. The algorithm leverages the permutation-invariance of total displacement, combinatorial enumeration, and dynamic programming. We conclude with open questions around an alternative solution concept for supermodular cost-sharing games and connections to other areas in combinatorics.
title Cost-sharing in Parking Games
topic Combinatorics
Discrete Mathematics
Computer Science and Game Theory
05A05, 91A12, 91A46
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12265