A Nash equilibrium filter

The Wonham filter, which estimates a Markov chain observed in Brownian noise, is considered. However, the parameters of the observation process are not known. Maximizing the un-normalized probabilities of the Zakai equation over the parameters leads to a Nash equilibrium whose solution is discussed using the stochastic control results of Peng and Yong and Zhou.     

Nash refinement of equilibria

A method for choosing equilibria in strategic form games is proposed and axiomatically characterized. The method as well as the axioms are inspired by the Nash bargaining theory. The method can be applied to existing refinements of Nash equilibrium (e.g., perfect equilibrium) and also to other equilibrium concepts, like correlated equilibrium.The authors thank the reviewers for their comments, which led to an improvement of the paper.     

Generalized Nash equilibrium

For accep/reject games and coalitionless games, the classical Roos-Nash equilibrium is generalized to a so-called strongly dependent equilibrium, which exists for a wider class of games than the classical equilibrium. The following hierarchical chain of progressively stronger equilibria is established: symmetrical activeA-equilibrium, strongly dependent equilibrium, symmetricalB-equilibrium, Roos-Nash classical dependent equilibrium. The first three of these have been proposed by the author as weaker versions of the classical coalitionless equilibrium. Translated from Nelineinaya Dinamika i Upravlenie, pp. 217–227, 1999.     

Negotiation-proof Nash equilibrium

This paper defines “negotiation-proof Nash equilibrium', a notion that applies to environments where players can negotiate openly and directly prior to the play of a noncooperative game. It recognizes the possibility that a group of self-interested players may choose, voluntarily and without binding agreement, to coordinate their choice of strategies and make joint objections; moreover, it takes the perfect foresight of rational players fully into account. The merit of the notion of negotiation-proof Nash equilibrium is twofold: (1) It offers a way to rectify the nestedness assumption and myopia embedded in the notion of coalition-proof Nash equilibrium. (2) The negotiation process is formalized by a “graph”, which serves as a natural extension to the approach that models preplay communication by an extensive game. Received: October 1998/Final version: May 2000     

Generalized Nash equilibrium problems

The Generalized Nash equilibrium problem is an important model that has its roots in the economic sciences but is being fruitfully used in many different fields. In this survey paper we aim at discussing its main properties and solution algorithms, pointing out what could be useful topics for future research in the field. The work of Christain Kanzow has been partially supported by the program “Identification, Optimization and Control with Applications in Modern Technologies” of the Elite Network of Bavaria, Germany.     

Nash equilibrium based fairness

There are several approaches of sharing resources among users. There is a noncooperative approach wherein each user strives to maximize its own utility. The most common optimality notion is then the Nash equilibrium. Nash equilibria are generally Pareto inefficient. On the other hand, we consider a Nash equilibrium to be fair as it is defined in a context of fair competition without coalitions (such as cartels and syndicates). We show a general framework of systems wherein there exists a Pareto optimal allocation that is Pareto superior to an inefficient Nash equilibrium. We consider this Pareto optimum to be ??Nash equilibrium based fair.?? We further define a ??Nash proportionately fair?? Pareto optimum. We then provide conditions for the existence of a Pareto-optimal allocation that is, truly or most closely, proportional to a Nash equilibrium. As examples that fit in the above framework, we consider noncooperative flow-control problems in communication networks, for which we show the conditions on the existence of Nash-proportionately fair Pareto optimal allocations.     

Logit equilibrium as an approximation of Nash equilibrium

We prove that the graph of the logit equilibrium correspondence is a smooth manifold, which is homeomorphic to the space of payoff functions and uniformly approximates the graph of the Nash equilibrium manifold.     

A best-response approach for equilibrium selection in two-player generalized Nash equilibrium problems

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we propose a best-response approach to select an equilibrium in a two-player generalized Nash equilibrium problem. In our model we solve, at each of a finite number of time steps, two independent optimization problems. We prove that convergence of our Jacobi-type method, for the number of time steps going to infinity, implies the selection of the same equilibrium as in a recently introduced continuous equilibrium selection theory. Thus the presented approach is a different motivation for the existing equilibrium selection theory, and it can also be seen as a numerical method. We show convergence of our numerical scheme for some special cases of generalized Nash equilibrium problems with linear constraints and linear or quadratic cost functions.     

Refinements of the Nash equilibrium concept

Selten's concept of perfect equilibrium for normal form games is reviewed, and a new concept of proper equilibrium is defined. It is shown that the proper equilibria form a nonempty subset of the perfect equilibria, which in turn form a subset of the Nash equilibria. An example is given to show that these inclusions may be strict.     

An insurance network: Nash equilibrium

We consider d insurance companies whose surplus processes are r.c.l.l. functions (like the sample paths of perturbed Levy processes). Suppose they have a treaty to diversify risk; accordingly, if one company needs a certain amount to prevent ruin, the other companies pitch in previously – agreed – upon fractions of the amount, and any shortfall is got from external sources. With each company trying to minimise its repayment liability, the situation is viewed upon as a d-person dynamic game with state space constraints and a Nash equilibrium is sought. Under certain natural conditions, it is shown that the Skorokhod problem of probability theory provides a (unique) Nash equilibrium. The thrust of the paper is entirely deterministic.     

A generalization of the Nash equilibrium theorem on bimatrix games

In this article, we consider a two-person game in which the first player picks a row representative matrixM from a nonempty set $A$ ofm ×n matrices and a probability distributionx on {1,2,...,m} while the second player picks a column representative matrixN from a nonempty set ? ofm ×n matrices and a probability distribution y on 1,2,...,n. This leads to the respective costs ofx ^t My andx ^t Ny for these players. We establish the existence of an ?-equilibrium for this game under the assumption that $A$ and ? are bounded. When the sets $A$ and ? are compact in ?^mxn, the result yields an equilibrium state at which stage no player can decrease his cost by unilaterally changing his row/column selection and probability distribution. The result, when further specialized to singleton sets, reduces to the famous theorem of Nash on bimatrix games.     

From winning strategy to Nash equilibrium

Game theory is usually considered applied mathematics, but a few game‐theoretic results, such as Borel determinacy, were developed by mathematicians for mathematics in a broad sense. These results usually state determinacy, i.e., the existence of a winning strategy in games that involve two players and two outcomes saying who wins. In a multi‐outcome setting, the notion of winning strategy is irrelevant yet usually replaced faithfully with the notion of (pure) Nash equilibrium. This article shows that every determinacy result over an arbitrary game structure, e.g., a tree, is transferable into existence of multi‐outcome (pure) Nash equilibrium over the same game structure. The equilibrium‐transfer theorem requires cardinal or order‐theoretic conditions on the strategy sets and the preferences, respectively, whereas counter‐examples show that every requirement is relevant, albeit possibly improvable. When the outcomes are finitely many, the proof provides an algorithm computing a Nash equilibrium without significant complexity loss compared to the two‐outcome case. As examples of application, this article generalises Borel determinacy, positional determinacy of parity games, and finite‐memory determinacy of Muller games.     

A half-space projection method for solving generalized Nash equilibrium problems

The generalized Nash equilibrium problem (GNEP) is an n-person noncooperative game in which each player’s strategy set depends on the rivals’ strategy set. In this paper, we presented a half-space projection method for solving the quasi-variational inequality problem which is a formulation of the GNEP. The difference from the known projection methods is due to the next iterate point in this method is obtained by directly projecting a point onto a half-space. Thus, our next iterate point can be represented explicitly. The global convergence is proved under the minimal assumptions. Compared with the known methods, this method can reduce one projection of a vector onto the strategy set per iteration. Numerical results show that this method not only outperforms the known method but is also less dependent on the initial value than the known method.     

On purification of equilibrium in Bayesian games and expost Nash equilibrium

Treating games of incomplete information, we demonstrate that the existence of an ex post stable strategy vector implies the existence of an approximate Bayesian equilibrium in pure strategies that is also expost stable. Through examples we demonstrate the ‘bounds obtained on the approximation’ are tight. The main results of this paper first appeared in University of Warwick Department of Economics Discussion Paper #710. 2004.     

Generalized Nash equilibrium problems and Newton methods

The generalized Nash equilibrium problem, where the feasible sets of the players may depend on the other players’ strategies, is emerging as an important modeling tool. However, its use is limited by its great analytical complexity. We consider several Newton methods, analyze their features and compare their range of applicability. We illustrate in detail the results obtained by applying them to a model for internet switching.     

A stochastic Nash equilibrium portfolio game between two DC pension funds

In this paper, we study the stochastic Nash equilibrium portfolio game between two pension funds under inflation risks. The financial market consists of cash, bond and two stocks. It is assumed that the price index is derived through a generalized Fisher equation while the bond is related to the price index to hedge the risk of inflation. Besides, these two pension managers can invest in their familiar stocks. The goal of the pension managers is to maximize the utility of the weighted terminal wealth and relative wealth. Dynamic programming method is employed to derive the Nash equilibrium strategies. In the end, a numerical analysis is presented to reveal the economic behaviors of the two DC pension funds.     

Nash equilibrium and the law of large numbers

Pascoa (1993a) showed that the failure of the law of large numbers for a continuum of independent randomizations implies that Schmeidler's (1973) concept of a measure-valued profile function in equilibrium might not coincide with the concept of mixed strategies equilibrium of a nonatomic game. The latter should be defined as a probability measure on pure strategies profiles which is induced by the product measure of players' mixed strategies. This paper addresses existence and approximate purification of the latter and presents an assumption on continuity of payoffs that guarantees the equivalence between the two equilibrium concepts.     

A numerical algorithm for finding solutions of a generalized Nash equilibrium problem

A family of nonempty closed convex sets is built by using the data of the Generalized Nash equilibrium problem (GNEP). The sets are selected iteratively such that the intersection of the selected sets contains solutions of the GNEP. The algorithm introduced by Iusem-Sosa (Optimization 52:301?C316, 2003) is adapted to obtain solutions of the GNEP. Finally some numerical experiments are given to illustrate the numerical behavior of the algorithm.