Sufficient conditions for Nash bargaining in differential games

Sufficient conditions for Nash bargaining in differential games are given. These conditions are compared with the sufficient conditions given by Liu (Ref. 1).     

Competitive newsvendor problems with the same Nash and Stackelberg solutions

Consider two newsvendors: (i) they compete satisfying substitutable demands searching Nash equilibrium or (ii) one is the leader deciding first, the other responds optimally playing a Stackelberg game. The leader profits more than she does in (i). We present conditions under which the leader's profit does not improve from (i) to (ii).     

On generalized Stackelberg strategies

The concept of Stackelberg strategy for a nonzero-sum two-person game is extended to allow for a nonunique rational response of the follower. This leads to the notion of a generalized Stackelberg strategy for the leader, which guarantees him a cost value that cannot be exceeded, no matter what the rational response of the follower. Then, a generalized Stackelberg strategy pair is defined. A simple example is given. The idea of a generalized Stackelberg strategy and strategy pair is then applied to the situation of one leader and many rational followers.This paper is based on research supported by the National Science Foundation.     

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.     

Sufficient conditions for optimality of threat strategies in a differential game

The problem of defining threat strategies in nonzero-sum games is considered, and a definition of optimal threat strategies is proposed in the static case. This definition is then extended to differential games, and sufficient conditions for optimality of threat strategies are derived. These are then applied to a simple example. The definition proposed here is then compared with the definition of threat strategies given by Nash.     

Sufficient conditions for Nash equilibria inN-person games over reflexive Banach spaces

Sufficient conditions are obtained for the existence of Nash equilibrium points inN-person games when the strategy sets are closed, convex subsets of reflexive Banach spaces. These conditions require that each player's cost functional is convex in that player's strategy, weakly continuous in the strategies of the other players, weakly lower semicontinuous in all strategies, and furthermore satisfies a coercivity condition if any of the strategy sets is unbounded. The result is applied to a class of linear-quadratic differential games with no information, to prove that equilibrium points exist when the duration of these games is sufficiently small.This work was supported by a Commonwealth of Australia, Postgraduate Research Award.     

On the uniqueness of Nash strategies for a class of analytic differential games

The uniqueness of Nash equilibria is shown for the case where the data of the problem are analytic functions and the admissible strategy spaces are restricted to analytic functions of the current state and time.This work was supported in part by the Joint Services Electronics Program (US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force) under Contract No. DAAB-07-72-C-0259, in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ENG-74-20091, and in part by the Department of Energy, Electric Energy Systems Division under Contract No. US ERDA EX-76-C-01-2088.     

Pure strategy Nash equilibria and the probabilistic prospects of Stackelberg players

We consider the set of all m×n bimatrix games with ordinal payoffs. We show that on the subset E of such games possessing at least one pure strategy Nash equilibrium, both players prefer the role of leader to that of follower in the corresponding Stackelberg games. This preference is in the sense of first-degree stochastic dominance by leader payoffs of follower payoffs. It follows easily that on the complement of E, the follower’s role is preferred in the same sense. Thus we see a tendency for leadership preference to obtain in the presence of multiple pure strategy Nash equilibria in the underlying game.     

On Coincidence of Feedback Nash Equilibria and Stackelberg Equilibria in Economic Applications of Differential Games

The scope of the applicability of the feedback Stackelberg equilibrium concept in differential games is investigated. First, conditions for obtaining the coincidence between the stationary feedback Nash equilibrium and the stationary feedback Stackelberg equilibrium are given in terms of the instantaneous payoff functions of the players and the state equations of the game. Second, a class of differential games representing the underlying structure of a good number of economic applications of differential games is defined; for this class of differential games, it is shown that the stationary feedback Stackelberg equilibrium coincides with the stationary feedback Nash equilibrium. The conclusion is that the feedback Stackelberg solution is generally not useful to investigate leadership in the framework of a differential game, at least for a good number of economic applications This paper was presented at the 8th Viennese Workshop on Optimal Control, Dynamic Games, and Nonlinear Dynamics: Theory and Applications in Economics and OR/MS, Vienna, Austria, May 14–16, 2003, at the Seminar of the Instituto Complutense de Analisis Economico, Madrid, Spain, June 20, 2003, and at the Sevilla Workshop on Dynamic Economics and the Environment, Sevilla, Spain, July 2–3, 2003. The author is grateful to the participants in these sessions, in particular F.J. Andre and J. Ruiz, for their comments. Five referees provided particularly helpful suggestions. Financial support from the Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologia under Grant BEC2000-1432 is gratefully acknowledged.     

Multilevel Stackelberg strategies in linear-quadratic systems

Open-loop multilevel Stackelberg strategies in deterministic, sequential decision-making problems for continuous linear systems and quadratic criteria are developed. Characterization of the Stackelberg controls via the solution of a higher-order square-matrix-Riccati differential equation is established; also, the basic structural properties of the coefficient matrices of this differential equation are established, and the basic structural properties of its solution are inferred.This work was supported in part by the Energy Research and Development Administration, Contract No. ERDA E(49-18)-2088.on leave from the Mihailo Pupin Institute, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.     

Noninferior Nash Strategies for Multi-Team Systems

This paper is concerned with the optimization of systems that are controlled by several teams of decision makers. The decision makers within each team cooperate for the benefit of their team. On the other hand, the teams compete among themselves in order to achieve an objective that relates to the overall performance of the system. An approach that merges concepts from team theory and game theory for dealing with such systems and a solution called the noninferior Nash strategy are introduced. This multi-team solution provides a new framework for analyzing hierarchically controlled systems so as to address complicated coordination problems among the decision makers. The properties of the noninferior Nash solution in static multi-team systems are investigated and necessary conditions for its existence are derived. Analytical expressions for the noninferior Nash strategies are derived for a class of linear-quadratic static multi-team games. In order to deal with the issue of nonuniqueness of the solution, the concept of a noninferior Nash strategy with a team leader is introduced. Several examples are presented to illustrate the results.     

Nash and Stackelberg Differential Games

A large class of stochastic differential games for several players is considered in this paper.The class includes Nash differential games as well as Stackelberg differential games.A mix is possible.The...     

State transformations and the derivation of Nash closed-loop equilibria for non-zero-sum differential games

In this paper the usefulness of state transformations in differential games is demonstrated. It is shown that different (admissible) state transformations give rise to different closed-loop Nash equilibrium candidates, which may all be found by solving systems of ordinary differential equations. A linear-quadratic duopoly differential game is solved to illustrate the results.     

Closed-loop Stackelberg solution to a multistage linear-quadratic game

A new solution of a two-person, nonzero-sum Stackelberg game, with linear dynamics, quadratic performance criteion, and closed-loop information available to both players, is presented. This solution is applicable to all problems where the leader is able to influence the objective function of the follower, and this function is strictly convex with respect to the control variable handled by the follower. The resulting equilibrium strategies adapt to the possible nonoptimal behavior of players at some stages of the game. The strategy of the leader has a simple interpretation of a threat formulated by the leader toward the follower and, if necessary, carried out one stage after the follower has played inconsistently with the leader's wishes.     

Sufficient conditions for preference optimality

Preference optimality is an optimality concept in multicriteria problems, that is, in problems where several criteria are to beoptimized simultaneously. Formally, one wishes to optimizeN criteriag _i(·) or, equivalently, a criterion vectorg(·) ^N , subject to either functional constraints in programming or to side conditions which are differential equations in optimal control. Subject to these constraints, one obtains forg(·) a set of attainable values in ^N . This set is preordered by the introduction of a complete preordering ; a controlu*(·) or a decisionx*, then, is preference-optimal if it results ing(u*(·))g(u(·)) for all admissible controlsu(·) or ifg(x*)g(x) for all feasible decisionsx. The present paper concerns sufficient conditions for preference-optimal control and for preference-optimal decisions.     

Learning algorithms for repeated bimatrix Nash games with incomplete information

The purpose of this paper is to study a particular recursive scheme for updating the actions of two players involved in a Nash game, who do not know the parameters of the game, so that the resulting costs and strategies converge to (or approach a neighborhood of) those that could be calculated in the known parameter case. We study this problem in the context of a matrix Nash game, where the elements of the matrices are unknown to both players. The essence of the contribution of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it shows that learning algorithms which are known to work for zero-sum games or team problems can also perform well for Nash games. On the other hand, it shows that, if two players act without even knowing that they are involved in a game, but merely thinking that they try to maximize their output using the learning algorithm proposed, they end up being in Nash equilibrium.This research was supported in part by NSF Grant No. ECS-87-14777.     

Existence and Uniqueness of Open-Loop Stackelberg Equilibria in Linear-Quadratic Differential Games

We present existence and uniqueness results for a hierarchical or Stackelberg equilibrium in a two-player differential game with open-loop information structure. There is a known convexity condition ensuring the existence of a Stackelberg equilibrium, which was derived by Simaan and Cruz (Ref. 1). This condition applies to games with a rather nonconflicting structure of their cost criteria. By another approach, we obtain here new sufficient existence conditions for an open-loop equilibrium in terms of the solvability of a terminal-value problem of two symmetric Riccati differential equations and a coupled system of Riccati matrix differential equations. The latter coupled system appears also in the necessary conditions, but contrary to the above as a boundary-value problem. In case that the convexity condition holds, both symmetric equations are of standard type and admit globally a positive-semidefinite solution. But the conditions apply also to more conflicting situations. Then, the corresponding Riccati differential equations may be of H-type. We obtain also different uniqueness conditions using a Lyapunov-type approach. The case of time-invariant parameters is discussed in more detail and we present a numerical example.     

Existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium feedback for a simple nonzero-sum differential game

Existence and uniqueness of a Nash equilibrium feedback is established for a simple class nonzero-sum differential games on the line.