War for land: a division game on measurable spaces
by
Antonio D'Agata
University of Catania

The problem of division of a given amount of resources can be analysed from the game-theoretic point of view or from the decision-theoretic point of view; moreover, the resources can be described by a real number or by a measurable space. There exists a considerable literature on division of a given amount of resources ( described by a real number or a measurable space) from the decision-theoretic point of view, and recently game theory has been used to explain non-cooperative division of a given resource when it is described by a real number. Apart very few works, a major weakness of the literature on division of a measurable space is that it pays no attention to the shapes of the elements of the partition. Thus, these subsets can be very unsatisfactory from the economic point of view.

In this paper we develop a non-cooperative game whose outcome is the division of a measurable space. Typical and important examples of this kind of game are the games played by nations to predates other states'territories by means of war, and games played by criminal organizations for determining the geographic area under their control. The approach we propose allows to provide sufficient conditions ensuring also that the elements of the partitions of the space are nicely shaped.

Date received: June 21, 2000

Copyright © 2000 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # cafk-53.