English

What Semivalues Cannot See: The Information Content of Anonymous Marginal Values

Computer Science and Game Theory 2026-07-08 v1

Abstract

The semivalue family shares a common kernel: games invisible to every anonymous marginal value at once, nonzero from four players (Kleinberg and Weiss, 1985; Amer, Derks and Gim\'enez, 2003). Crisman and Orrison (2015) ask what useful structure this kernel carries; this paper gives a concrete answer. In Harsanyi-dividend coordinates the joint information of all semivalues is exactly each player's total synergy at each coalition size, so the kernel is synergy arranged in closed circuits. We prove: order-d\le d mixed-difference audits recover exactly the degree-d\le d dividend-slice harmonics, with closed-form dimension at every rung; nonzero blind games fail superadditivity, monotonicity, and core existence, yet distinct convex games with identical values under every semivalue exist from four players, with exact perturbation thresholds; the positive weighted Shapley family attains full information 2n12^n-1, so anonymity is the binding axiom within the marginal framework; and a coalition of size cc defeats every audit of order d\le d precisely when c2d+2c\ge2d+2, within the convex class for small perturbations. An exhaustive census at n=5n=5 exhibits non-isomorphic voting rules with identical values under every semivalue power index; no weighted game participates in any collision, prompting a swing-rigidity conjecture. Measured against the theory, classical cooperative games sit at 0.900.90 to 1.001.00 visibility to the family versus 0.0890.089 for a random game.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.07013,
  title  = {What Semivalues Cannot See: The Information Content of Anonymous Marginal Values},
  author = {Matthew Fried},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.07013},
  year   = {2026}
}

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15 pages