Ordered field property for stochastic games when the player who controls transitions changes from state to state

In this paper, we consider a zero-sum stochastic game with finitely many states restricted by the assumption that the probability transitions from a given state are functions of the actions of only one of the players. However, the player who thus controls the transitions in the given state will not be the same in every state. Further, we assume that all payoffs and all transition probabilities specifying the law of motion are rational numbers. We then show that the values of both a -discounted game, for rational , and of a Cesaro-average game are in the field of rational numbers. In addition, both games possess optimal stationary strategies which have only rational components. Our results and their proofs form an extension of the results and techniques which were recently developed by Parthasarathy and Raghavan (Ref. 1).The author wishes to thank Professor T. E. S. Raghavan for introducing him to this problem and for discussing stochastic games with him on many occasions. This research was supported in part by AFOSR Grant No. 78–3495B.     

An orderfield property for stochastic games when one player controls transition probabilities

When the transition probabilities of a two-person stochastic game do not depend on the actions of a fixed player at all states, the value exists in stationary strategies. Further, the data of the stochastic game, the values at each state, and the components of a pair of optimal stationary strategies all lie in the same Archimedean ordered field. This orderfield property holds also for the nonzero sum case in Nash equilibrium stationary strategies. A finite-step algorithm for the discounted case is given via linear programming.This research was partially supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Grant No. 78-3495. The authors are indebted to Mr. J. Filar for some helpful suggestions in redrafting an earlier version of the paper, especially toward clarifying some obscurities in the proofs of Theorems 3.1 and 4.2 that existed in the earlier versions. This paper is dedicated to Professor C. R. Rao on his 60th birthday.     

A note on two-person zero-sum communicating stochastic games

For undiscounted two-person zero-sum communicating stochastic games with finite state and action spaces, a solution procedure is proposed that exploits the communication property, i.e., working with irreducible games over restricted strategy spaces. The proposed procedure gives the value of the communicating game with an arbitrarily small error when the value is independent of the initial state.     

Fictitious play in stochastic games

In this paper we examine an extension of the fictitious play process for bimatrix games to stochastic games. We show that the fictitious play process does not necessarily converge, not even in the 2 × 2 × 2 case with a unique equilibrium in stationary strategies. Here 2 × 2 × 2 stands for 2 players, 2 states, 2 actions for each player in each state.     

On the saddle-point solution of a class of stochastic differential games

This paper deals with the saddle-point solution of a class of stochastic differential games described by linear state dynamics and quadratic objective functionals. The information structure of the problem is such that both players have access to a common noisy linear measurement of the state and they are permitted to utilize only this information in constructing their controls. The saddle-point solution of such differential game problems has been discussed earlier in Ref. 1, but the conclusions arrived there are incorrect, as is explicitly shown in this paper. We extensively discuss the role of information structure on the saddle-point solution of such stochastic games (specifically within the context of an illustrative discrete-time example) and then obtain the saddle-point solution of the problem originally formulated by employing an indirect approach.This work was done while the author was on sabbatical leave at Twente University of Technology, Department of Applied Mathematics, Enschede, Holland, from Applied Mathematics Division, Marmara Scientific and Industrial Research Institute, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey.     

Stackelberg strategies in linear-quadratic stochastic differential games

This paper obtains the Stackelberg solution to a class of two-player stochastic differential games described by linear state dynamics and quadratic objective functionals. The information structure of the problem is such that the players make independent noisy measurements of the initial state and are permitted to utilize only this information in constructing their controls. Furthermore, by the very nature of the Stackelberg solution concept, one of the players is assumed to know, in advance, the strategy of the other player (the leader). For this class of problems, we first establish existence and uniqueness of the Stackelberg solution and then relate the derivation of the leader's Stackelberg solution to the optimal solution of a nonstandard stochastic control problem. This stochastic control problem is solved in a more general context, and its solution is utilized in constructing the Stackelberg strategy of the leader. For the special case Gaussian statistics, it is shown that this optimal strategy is affine in observation of the leader. The paper also discusses numerical aspects of the Stackelberg solution under general statistics and develops algorithms which converge to the unique Stackelberg solution.This work was performed while the second author was on sabbatical leave at the Department of Applied Mathematics, Twente University of Technology, Enschede, Holland.     

Perfect equilibria in stochastic games

We examine stochastic games with finite state and action spaces. For the -discounted case, as well as for the irreducible limiting average case, we show the existence of trembling-hand perfect equilibria and give characterizations of those equilibria. In the final section, we give an example which illustrates that the existence of stationary limiting average equilibria in a nonirreducible stochastic game does not imply the existence of a perfect limiting average equilibrium.Support was provided by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research NWO via the Netherlands Foundation for Mathematics SMC, Project 10-64-10.     

On linear stochastic differential games with average cost criterions

In this paper, we consider scalar linear stochastic differential games with average cost criterions. We solve the dynamic programming equations for these games and give the synthesis of saddle-point and Nash equilibrium solutions.The authors wish to thank A. Ichikawa for providing the initial impetus and helpful advice.     

Bilinear programming and structured stochastic games

One-step algorithms are presented for two classes of structured stochastic games, namely, those with additive rewards and transitions and those which have switching controllers. Solutions to such classes of games under the average reward criterion can be derived from optimal solutions to appropriate bilinear programs. The validity of using bilinear programming as a solution method follows from two preliminary theorems, the first of which is a complete classification of undiscounted stochastic games with optimal stationary strategies. The second of these preliminary theorems relaxes the conditions of the classification theorem for certain classes of stochastic games and provides the basis for the bilinear programming results. Analogous results hold for the discounted stochastic games with the above special structures.This research was supported in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ECS-850-3440.     

Nonrandomized strategy equilibria in noncooperative stochastic games with additive transition and reward structure

In this paper, we study a discounted noncooperative stochastic game with an abstract measurable state space, compact metric action spaces of players, and additive transition and reward structure in the sense of Himmelberget al. (Ref. 1) and Parthasarathy (Ref. 2). We also assume that the transition law of the game is absolutely continuous with respect to some probability distributionp of the initial state and together with the reward functions of players satisfies certain continuity conditions. We prove that such a game has an equilibrium stationary point, which extends a result of Parthasarathy from Ref. 2, where the action spaces of players are assumed to be finite sets. Moreover, we show that our game has a nonrandomized (- )-equilibrium stationary point for each >0, provided that the probability distributionp is nonatomic. The latter result is a new existence theorem.     

On a problem of stochastic differential games

The process of bargaining between management and union during a strike is modelled by a nonlinear stochastic differential game. It is assumed that the two sides bargain in the mood of a cooperative game. A pair of Pareto-optimal strategies is obtained.     

On the existence of good stationary strategies for nonleavable stochastic games

This paper discusses the problem regarding the existence of optimal or nearly optimal stationary strategies for a player engaged in a nonleavable stochastic game. It is known that, for these games, player I need not have an -optimal stationary strategy even when the state space of the game is finite. On the contrary, we show that uniformly -optimal stationary strategies are available to player II for nonleavable stochastic games with finite state space. Our methods will also yield sufficient conditions for the existence of optimal and -optimal stationary strategies for player II for games with countably infinite state space. With the purpose of introducing and explaining the main results of the paper, special consideration is given to a particular class of nonleavable games whose utility is equal to the indicator of a subset of the state space of the game.     

Cooperative equilibria in discounted stochastic sequential games

This paper addresses the problem of computation of cooperative equilibria in discounted stochastic sequential games. The proposed approach contains as a special case the method of Green and Porter (developed originally for repeated oligopoly games), but it is more general than the latter in the sense that it generates nontrivial equilibrium solutions for a much larger class of dynamic games. This fact is demonstrated on two examples, one concerned with duopolistic economics and the other with fishery management.     

A note on clemhout and Wan's dynamic games of common property resources

Recently, Clemhout and Wan (Ref. 1) provided solutions to a class of stochastic differential game models concerning common property resources. However, they only established closed-loop strategies for the infinite-horizon problem using the Kushner test. In this paper, we provide closed-loop feedback solutions to their game in a finite-time horizon with deterministic evolution dynamics.The helpful comments of an anonymous referee are gratefully acknowledged.     

Existence of equilibrium stationary strategies in discounted noncooperative stochastic games with uncountable state space

This paper considers discounted noncooperative stochastic games with uncountable state space and compact metric action spaces. We assume that the transition law is absolutely continuous with respect to some probability measure defined on the state space. We prove, under certain additional continuity and integrability conditions, that such games have -equilibrium stationary strategies for each >0. To prove this fact, we provide a method for approximating the original game by a sequence of finite or countable state games. The main result of this paper answers partially a question raised by Parthasarathy in Ref. 1.     

The MaxMin value of stochastic games with imperfect monitoring

We study finite zero-sum stochastic games in which players do not observe the actions of their opponent. Rather, at each stage, each player observes a stochastic signal that may depend on the current state and on the pair of actions chosen by the players. We assume that each player observes the state and his/her own action. We prove that the uniform max-min value always exists. Moreover, the uniform max-min value is independent of the information structure of player 2. Symmetric results hold for the uniform min-max value. We deeply thank E. Lehrer, J.-F. Mertens, A. Neyman and S. Sorin. The discussions we had, and the suggestions they provided, were extremely useful. We acknowledge the financial support of the Arc-en-Ciel/Keshet program for 2001/2002. The research of the second author was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 69/01-1).     

Characterizing properties of the value function of stochastic games

In the present note, the axiomatic characterization of the value function of two-person, zero-sum games in normal form by Vilkas and Tijs is extended to the value function of discounted, two-person, zero-sum stochastic games. The characterizing axioms can be indicated by the following terms: objectivity, monotony, and sufficiency for both players; or sufficiency for one of the players and symmetry. Also, a characterization without using the monotony axiom is given.     

On nash equilibrium solutions in nonzero-sum stochastic games with complete information

Two-person nonzero-sum stochastic games with complete information are considered. It is shown that it is sufficient to search the equilibrium solutions in a class of deterministic strategy pairs — the so-calledintimidation strategy pairs. Furthermore, properties of the set of all equilibrium losses of such strategy pairs are proved.     

A BSDE approach to Nash equilibrium payoffs for stochastic differential games with nonlinear cost functionals

In this paper, we study Nash equilibrium payoffs for two-player nonzero-sum stochastic differential games via the theory of backward stochastic differential equations. We obtain an existence theorem and a characterization theorem of Nash equilibrium payoffs for two-player nonzero-sum stochastic differential games with nonlinear cost functionals defined with the help of doubly controlled backward stochastic differential equations. Our results extend former ones by Buckdahn et al. (2004) [3] and are based on a backward stochastic differential equation approach.     

Linear complementarity and discounted switching controller stochastic games

The class of discounted switching controller stochastic games can be solved in one step by a linear complementarity program (LCP). Following the proof of this technical result is a discussion of a special formulation and initialization of a standard LCP pivoting algorithm which has, in numerical experiments, always terminated in a complementary solution. That the LCP algorithm as formulated always finds a complementary solution has not yet been proven, but these theoretical and experimental results have the potential to provide an alternative proof of the ordered field property for these games. Numerical experimentation with the reformulated LCP is reviewed.