Toughness in Integrative Bargaining

This article introduces a new measure of bargaining toughness. Previous measures of toughness have been based on simple averages and are suitable for use only in situations of distributive bargaining. By contrast, the proposed measure is based on dynamical information and can easily be used in integrative bargaining scenarios. The key to defining such a measure is to utilize the feasible outcome sets of Nash (1950) and to represent the bargainer's concessions by a path in the feasible outcome set. By mathematically modeling the speed with which the bargainer concedes, it becomes possible to develop a measure of bargaining toughness that takes into account not only how much the bargainer has conceded, but how fast he or she has done so.