There are a number of different approaches to the modeling of biological markets. Our original model (Noë & Hammerstein 1994) and a recent model by Johnstone & Bshary (2008) are based on game theory
Other models, such as those published by Mark Schwartz and Jason Hoeksema and by Miro Kummel and Steve Salant, are based on David Ricardo's (1817) principle of 'comparative advantage'
References:
Noë, R. & Hammerstein, P. 1994. Biological markets: supply and demand determine the effect of partner choice in cooperation, mutualism and mating. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 35, 1-11.
Schwartz, M. W. & Hoeksema, J. D. 1998. Specialization and resource trade: biological markets as a model of mutualisms. Ecology, 79, 1029-1038.
Hoeksema, J. D. & Schwartz, M. W. 2003. Expanding comparative-advantage biological market models: contingency of mutualism on partners’ resource requirements and acquisition trade-offs. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 270, 913-919.
Kummel, M. & Salant, S. W. 2006. The economics of mutualisms: optimal utilization of mycorrhizal mutualistic partners by plants. Ecology, 87, 892-902.
Johnstone, R. A. & Bshary, R. 2008. Mutualism, market effects and partner control. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 21, 879-888
Related theoretical approaches that also revolve around phenomena such as partner choice and competition by outbidding include:
Doebeli, M. & Knowlton, N. 1998. The evolution of interspecific mutualisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 95, 8676-8680.
Sosis, R., Feldstein, S. & Hill, K. 1998. Bargaining theory and cooperative fishing participation on Ifakuk Atoll. Human Nature, 9, 163-203.
Roberts, G. 1998. Competitive altruism: from reciprocity to the handicap principle. Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B., 265, 427-431.
Johnson, D. D. P., Stopka, P. & Macdonald, D. W. 2004. Ideal flea constraints on group living: unwanted public goods and the emergence of cooperation. Behavioral Ecology, 15, 181-186.
Boza, G. & Scheuring, I. 2004. Environmental heterogeneity and the evolution of mutualism. Ecological Complexity, 1, 329–339.
Ferdy, J. B. & Godelle, B. 2005. Diversification of transmission modes and the evolution of mutualism. American Naturalist, 166, 613-627.
Edwards, D. P., Hassall, M., Sutherland, W. J. & Yu, D. W. 2006. Selection for protection in an ant–plant mutualism: host sanctions, host modularity, and the principal–agent game. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 273, 595 - 602.
Foster, K. & Kokko, H. 2006. Cheating can stabilize cooperation in mutualisms. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273, 2233-2239.
Nesse, R. M. 2007. Runaway social selection for displays of partner value and altruism. Biological Theory, 2, 1-13.
