  Given a standard myopic dynamic process among coalition structures, an
absorbing set is a minimal collection of such structures that is never left
once entered through that process. Absorbing sets are an important solution
concept in coalition formation games, but they have drawbacks: they can be
large and hard to obtain. In this paper, we characterize an absorbing set in
terms of a collection consisting of a small number of sets of coalitions that
we refer to as a "reduced form" of a game. We apply our characterization to
study convergence to stability in several economic environments.
