A Banzhaf value for games with a proximity relation among the agents

Abstract

The Banzhaf index is a function determining the power or influence in the decision of a set of agents. The extension of this index to the family of the cooperative games is named Banzhaf value. The relationships of closeness among the agents should modify their power. Games with a priori unions study situations where the closeness relations among the agents are taken into account. In this model the agents are organized in an a priori partition where each element of the partition represents a group of agents with close interests or ideas. The power is determined in two steps, first as a problem among the unions and later, inside each one, the power of each agent is determined. Proximity relations extend this model considering leveled closeness among the agents. In this paper we analyze a version of the Banzhaf value for games with a proximity relation and we show the interest of this value by applying it to the allocation of the power of the political groups in the European Parliament.