Egoist's dilemma: a data envelopment analysis game

This paper deals with problems of consensus-making among individuals or organizations with multiple criteria for evaluating their performance when the players are supposed to be egoistic; in the sense that each player sticks to his superiority regarding the criteria. We analyze this situation within the framework or concept developed in data envelopment analysis. This leads to a dilemma called the ‘egoist's dilemma’. We examine this dilemma using cooperative game theory and propose a solution. The scheme developed in this paper can also be applied to attaining fair cost allocations as well as benefit–cost distributions.