Resumen de Generating functions: a useful tool for computing power indices

José María Alonso Meijide , Balbina Virginia Casas Méndez

• In the theory of simple games, the study of power indices plays an important role. One of the main difficulties with these indices is that computation generally requires the sum of a very large number of terms. The generating functions are efficient tools to make more easy this computation. In this paper, we provide a revision of the main elements of this method when we use it to compute the Shapley-Shubik and the Banzhaf- Coleman power indices. Further, we provide a new method to compute the Banzhaf-Coleman index.