Infinite sequential games with perfect but incomplete information

Infinite sequential games, in which Nature chooses a Borel winning set and reveals it to one of the players, do not necessarily have a value if Nature has 3 or more choices. The value does exist if Nature has 2 choices. The value also does not necessarily exist if Nature chooses from 2 Borel payoff functions. Similarly, if Player 1 chooses the Borel winning set and does not reveal his selection to Player 2, then the game does not necessarily have a value if there are 3 or more choices; it does have a value if there are only 2 choices. If Player 1 chooses from 2 Borel payoff functions and does not reveal his choice, the game need not have a value either.     

Odds versus evens in Silverman-type games

A class of Silverman-like games is considered where the players need not choose numbers from the same set. The case where Player I chooses from the positive odd integers and Player II from the positive even integers is analyzed for all threshold and penalty values. Optimal strategies, involving only finitely many pure strategies, exist in all cases and are obtained explicitly. The game value is found in all cases. The game never favors the evens, almost always favors the odds, but in a curious sequence of special cases is fair.     

Games of stopping with infinite horizon

We consider two-person zero-sum games of stopping: two players sequentially observe a stochastic process with infinite time horizon. Player I selects a stopping time and player II picks the distribution of the process. The pay-off is given by the expected value of the stopped process. Results of Irle (1990) on existence of value and equivalence of randomization for such games with finite time horizon, where the set of strategies for player II is dominated in the measure-theoretical sense, are extended to the infinite time case. Furthermore we treat such games when the set of strategies for player II is not dominated. A counterexample shows that even in the finite time case such games may not have a value. Then a sufficient condition for the existence of value is given which applies to prophet-type games.     

Static search games played over graphs and general metric spaces

We define a general game which forms a basis for modelling situations of static search and concealment over regions with spatial structure. The game involves two players, the searching player and the concealing player, and is played over a metric space. Each player simultaneously chooses to deploy at a point in the space; the searching player receiving a payoff of 1 if his opponent lies within a predetermined radius r of his position, the concealing player receiving a payoff of 1 otherwise. The concepts of dominance and equivalence of strategies are examined in the context of this game, before focusing on the more specific case of the game played over a graph. Methods are presented to simplify the analysis of such games, both by means of the iterated elimination of dominated strategies and through consideration of automorphisms of the graph. Lower and upper bounds on the value of the game are presented and optimal mixed strategies are calculated for games played over a particular family of graphs.     

Efficient Winning Strategies in Random‐Turn Maker–Breaker Games

We consider random‐turn positional games, introduced by Peres, Schramm, Sheffield, and Wilson in 2007. A p‐random‐turn positional game is a two‐player game, played the same as an ordinary positional game, except that instead of alternating turns, a coin is being tossed before each turn to decide the identity of the next player to move (the probability of Player I to move is p ). We analyze the random‐turn version of several classical Maker–Breaker games such as the game Box (introduced by Chvátal and Erd?s in 1987), the Hamilton cycle game and the k‐vertex‐connectivity game (both played on the edge set of ). For each of these games we provide each of the players with a (randomized) efficient strategy that typically ensures his win in the asymptotic order of the minimum value of p for which he typically wins the game, assuming optimal strategies of both players.     

The structure of utility functions ensuring the existence of an exact potential in a strategic game

Strategic games in which the profit of each participant is the sum of local profits gained by means certain “objects” and shared by all players using these objects are considered. If each object satisfies a regularity condition, then the game has an exact potential. Both universal classes of potential games considered previously in the literature, overflow games and games with structured utility functions, are contained in the class under consideration and satisfy the regularity condition.     

On Pareto equilibria in vector-valued extensive form games

In this paper we investigate the existence of Pareto equilibria in vector-valued extensive form games. In particular we show that every vector-valued extensive form game with perfect information has at least one subgame perfect Pareto equilibrium in pure strategies. If one tries to prove this and develop a vector-valued backward induction procedure in analogy to the real-valued one, one sees that different effects may occur which thus have to be taken into account: First, suppose the deciding player at a nonterminal node makes a choice such that the equilibrium payoff vector of the subgame he would enter is undominated under the equilibrium payoff vectors of the other subgames he might enter. Then this choice need not to lead to a Pareto equilibrium. Second, suppose at a nonterminal node a chance move may arise. The combination of the Pareto equilibria of the subgames to give a strategy combination of the entire game need not be a Pareto equilibrium of the entire game.     

Games of timing with resources of mixed type

The paper considers a game of timing which is closely related to the so-called duels. This is a game connected with the distribution of resources by two players. Each of the players is in possession of some amount of resource to be distributed by him in the time interval [0, 1]. In his behavior, Player 1 is restricted by the necessity of taking all of his resources at a single point, while Player 2 has no restrictions. For the payoff function, defined as for duels, the game is solved; explicit formulas on the value of the game and the optimal strategies for the players are found.     

The principal-agent problem with evolutionary learning

We extend agency theory to incorporate bounded rationality of both principals and agents. In this study we define a simple version of the principal-agent game and examine it using object-oriented computer simulation. Player learning is simulated with a genetic algorithm model. Our results show that players of incentive games in highly uncertain environments may take on defensive strategies. These defensive strategies lead to equilibria which are inferior to Nash equilibria. If agents are risk averse, the principal may not be able to provide enough monetary compensation to encourage them to take risks. But principals may be able to improve system performance by identifying good performers and facilitating information exchange among agents.The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions.     

Inheritance of properties in communication situations

In this paper we consider cooperative games in which the possibilities for cooperation between the players are restricted because communication between the players is restricted. The bilateral communication possibilities are modeled by means of a (communication) graph. We are interested in how the communication restrictions influence the game. In particular, we investigate what conditions on the communication graph guarantee that certain appealing properties of the original game are inherited by the graph-restricted game, the game that arises once the communication restrictions are taken into account. We study inheritance of the following properties: average convexity, inclusion of the Shapley value in the core, inclusion of the Shapley values of a game and all its subgames in the corresponding cores, existence of a population monotonic allocation scheme, and the property that the extended Shapley value is a population monotonic allocation scheme. Received May 1998/Revised version January 2000     

Stochastic games with non-observable actions

We examine n-player stochastic games. These are dynamic games where a play evolves in stages along a finite set of states; at each stage players independently have to choose actions in the present state and these choices determine a stage payoff to each player as well as a transition to a new state where actions have to be chosen at the next stage. For each player the infinite sequence of his stage payoffs is evaluated by taking the limiting average. Normally stochastic games are examined under the condition of full monitoring, i.e. at any stage each player observes the present state and the actions chosen by all players. This paper is a first attempt towards understanding under what circumstances equilibria could exist in n-player stochastic games without full monitoring. We demonstrate the non-existence of -equilibria in n-player stochastic games, with respect to the average reward, when at each stage each player is able to observe the present state, his own action, his own payoff, and the payoffs of the other players, but is unable to observe the actions of them. For this purpose, we present and examine a counterexample with 3 players. If we further drop the assumption that the players can observe the payoffs of the others, then counterexamples already exist in games with only 2 players.     

Randomized stopping games and Markov market games

We study nonzero-sum stopping games with randomized stopping strategies. The existence of Nash equilibrium and ɛ-equilibrium strategies are discussed under various assumptions on players random payoffs and utility functions dependent on the observed discrete time Markov process. Then we will present a model of a market game in which randomized stopping times are involved. The model is a mixture of a stochastic game and stopping game. Research supported by grant PBZ-KBN-016/P03/99.     

On expectations and the monetary stakes in ultimatum games

In an ultimatum game, player 1 makes an offer of $X from a total of $M to player 2. If player 2 accepts the offer, then player 1 is paid $(M-X) and player 2 receives $X; if player 2 rejects the offer, each gets zero. In the ultimatum game experiments reported in the literature,M is typically not more than $10 (see Forsythe, Horowitz, Savin and Sefton, 1994, hereafter FHSS; Hoffman, McCabe, Shachat and Smith, 1994, hereafter HMSS, and the literature cited therein). We report new results for 50 bargaining pairs in whichM=$100, and compare them with previous outcomes from 48 pairs withM=$10. The need for an examination of the effect of increased stakes on ultimatum bargaining is suggested by a literature survey of the effect of varying the stakes in a wide variety of decision making and market experiments over the last 33 years (Smith and Walker, 1993b). Many cases were found in which the predictions of theory were improved when the monetary rewards were increased. There were also cases in which the level of monetary rewards had no effect on the results. Consequently, it is necessary to examine the stakes question on a case by case basis. The previously reported effect of instructional changes, which define different institutional contexts, on ultimatum game outcomes, and the effect of stakes reported here, suggest a game formulation that explains changes in the behavior of both players as a result of changes in the instructional treatments. We formulate such a model and indicate how it might be further tested.     

Avoider-Enforcer: The rules of the game

An Avoider-Enforcer game is played by two players, called Avoider and Enforcer, on a hypergraph F⊆X². The players claim previously unoccupied elements of the board X in turns. Enforcer wins if Avoider claims all vertices of some element of F, otherwise Avoider wins. In a more general version of the game a bias b is introduced to level up the players' chances of winning; Avoider claims one element of the board in each of his moves, while Enforcer responds by claiming b elements. This traditional set of rules for Avoider-Enforcer games is known to have a shortcoming: it is not bias monotone.We relax the traditional rules in a rather natural way to obtain bias monotonicity. We analyze this new set of rules and compare it with the traditional ones to conclude some surprising results. In particular, we show that under the new rules the threshold bias for both the connectivity and Hamiltonicity games, played on the edge set of the complete graph Kn, is asymptotically equal to n/logn. This coincides with the asymptotic threshold bias of the same game played by two “random” players.     

Subgame perfect equilibria in stopping games

Stopping games (without simultaneous stopping) are multi-player sequential games in which at every stage one of the players is chosen according to a stochastic process, and that player decides whether to continue the interaction or to stop it, whereby the terminal payoff vector is obtained by another stochastic process. We prove that if the payoff process is integrable, a $\delta $ -approximate subgame perfect ${\epsilon }$ -equilibrium exists for every $\delta ,\epsilon >0$ ; that is, there exists a strategy profile that is an ${\epsilon }$ -equilibrium in all subgames, except possibly in a set of subgames that occurs with probability at most $\delta $ (even after deviation by some of the players).     

Alfa-cut based linear programming methodology for constrained matrix games with payoffs of trapezoidal fuzzy numbers

The purpose of this paper is to develop an effective methodology for solving constrained matrix games with payoffs of trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (TrFNs), which are a type of two-person non-cooperative games with payoffs expressed by TrFNs and players’ strategies being constrained. In this methodology, it is proven that any Alfa-constrained matrix game has an interval-type value and hereby any constrained matrix game with payoffs of TrFNs has a TrFN-type value. The auxiliary linear programming models are derived to compute the interval-type value of any Alfa-constrained matrix game and players’ optimal strategies. Thereby the TrFN-type value of any constrained matrix game with payoffs of TrFNs can be directly obtained through solving the derived four linear programming models with data taken from only 1-cut and 0-cut of TrFN-type payoffs. Validity and applicability of the models and method proposed in this paper are demonstrated with a numerical example of the market share game problem.     

On a noisy-silent-versus-silent duel with equal accuracy functions

This paper deals with the noisy-silent-versus-silent duel with equal accuracy functions. Player I has a gun with two bullets and player II has a gun with one bullet. The first bullet of player I is noisy, the second bullet of player I is silent, and the bullet of player II is silent. Each player can fire their bullets at any time in [0, 1] aiming at his opponent. The accuracy function ist for both players. If player I hits player II, not being hit himself before, the payoff of the duel is +1; if player I is hit by player II, not hitting player II before, the payoff is –1. The optimal strategies and the value of the game are obtained. Although optimal strategies in past works concerning games of timing does not depend on the firing moments of the players, the optimal strategy obtained for player II depends explicitly on the firing moment of player I's noisy bullet.     

Zero-sum sequential games with incomplete information

Repeated zero-sum two-person games of incomplete information on one side are considered. If the one-shot game is played sequentially, the informed player moving first, it is proved that the value of then-shot game is constant inn and is equal to the concavification of the game in which the informed player disregards his extra information. This is a strengthening ofAumann andMaschler's results for simultaneous games. Optimal strategies for both players are constructed explicitly.     

Periodic stopping games

Stopping games (without simultaneous stopping) are sequential games in which at every stage one of the players is chosen, who decides whether to continue the interaction or stop it, whereby a terminal payoff vector is obtained. Periodic stopping games are stopping games in which both of the processes that define it, the payoff process as well as the process by which players are chosen, are periodic and do not depend on the past choices. We prove that every periodic stopping game without simultaneous stopping, has either periodic subgame perfect ϵ-equilibrium or a subgame perfect 0-equilibrium in pure strategies. This work is part of the master thesis of the author done under the supervision of Prof. Eilon Solan. I am thankful to Prof. Solan for his inspiring guidance. I also thank two anonymous referees of the International Journal of Game Theory for their comments.     

Comparability graphs and a new matroid

We consider a variety of two person perfect information games of the following sort. On the ith round Player I selects a vector v_i of a certain prescribed form and Player II either adds or subtracts v_i from a cumulative sum. Player II's object is to keep the cumulative sum as small as possible. We give bounds on the value of such games under a variety of conditions.