ASSIGNMENT GAMES, CHROMATIC NUMBER, AND EXCHANGE THEORY

The exchange networks that social psychologists have studied can usefu lly be represented as game theoretic 2-sided assignment games. Conceiv ing of these networks as 2-sided assignment games opens up the possibi lity of studying N-sided assignment games and games without cores. 2-s ided assignment games are special in that they always have cores, stab le solutions in which every individual and subgroup behave rationally. The implicit assignment of positions to categories of an N-sided assi gnment game is related to coloring a graph. The color classes form set s of positions with potentially related interests. Color equivalence i s compared to structural, regular, automorphic, and ecological positio nal equivalence.