Decomposition of Games: Some Strategic Considerations

Abstract

Orthogonal direct-sum decompositions of finite games into potential, harmonic and nonstrategic components exist in the literature. In this paper we study the issue of decomposing games that are strategically equivalent from a game-theoretical point of view, for instance games obtained via transformations such as duplications of strategies or positive affine mappings of the payoffs. We show the need to define classes of decompositions to achieve commutativity of game transformations and decompositions.