In 1944, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern proved that any non-zero-sum game for n players is equivalent to a zero-sum game with n + 1 players; the (n + 1)

In 1944, John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern proved that any non-zero-sum game for n players is equivalent to a zero-sum game with n + 1 players; the (n + 1)th player representing the global profit or loss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game#Extensions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-sum_game#Extensions I think you're slightly misinterpreting this although I could certainly be wrong. The idea here is that you can add a n+1th player to a game who captures the excess profit or loss, but that player isn't allowed to influence the game. In this case, the n+1th player would be the net change in the economy. It's an interesting idea though. The only real source I found discussing this was the original book: http://jmvidal.cse.sc.edu/library/neumann44a.pdf http://jmvidal.cse.sc.edu/library/neumann44a.pdf page 528.