A Shapley value representation of potential games (Q1566896)

In this paper, a characterization of potential games is presented: An \(n\)-player game \(G\) is a potential game in the sense of \textit{D. Monderer} and \textit{L. S. Shapley} [Games Econ. Behav. 14, 124-143 (1996, Zbl 0862.90137)] if and only if there is a family of cooperative games \(G_a\) (indexed by the strategy \(n\)-tuples \(a\) of the game \(G\)) such that the payoff function for player \(i\) at \(a\) is equal to the Shapley value of \(G_a\) for player \(i\) (Theorem 2).