Publisher:
Lund University, School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Lund
Abstract:
We characterize the core of the partnership formation problem (Talman and Yang, Journal of Mathematical Economics 47, 2011) using cycles in the solution of a linear programming problem. The cycles also lead us to a new and intuitive sufficient condition for the existence of equilibrium, generalizing known results. We then introduce the partnership-stable equilibrium, a weakened solution concept in the sense that each equilibrium is also a partnership-stable equilibrium, and find sufficient and necessary conditions for its existence. Finally, we conduct a simulation study to see how often existence is an issue and which factors affect the rate at which problems have solutions.