General Game Playing (GGP) deals with the design of players that are able to play any discrete, deterministic, complete information games. For many games like chess, designers develop a player using a specially designed algorithm and tune all the features of the algorithm to play the game as good as possible. However, a general game player knows nothing about the game that is about to be played. When the game begins, game description is given to the players and they should analyze it and decide on the best way to play the game. In this thesis, we focus on two-player constant-sum simultaneous move games in GGP and how this class of games can be handled. Rock-paper-scissors can be considered as a typical example of a simultaneous move game. We introduce the CFR algorithm to the GGP community for the first time and show its effectiveness in playing simultaneous move games. This is the first implementation of CFR outside the poker world. We also improve the UCT algorithm, which is the state of the art in GGP, to be more robust in simultaneous move games. In addition, we analyze how UCT performs in simultaneous move games and argue that it does not converge to a Nash equilibrium. We also compare the usage of UCT and CFR in this class of games. Finally, we discuss about the importance of opponent modeling and how a model of the opponent can be exploited by using CFR.

Demand fluctuations will bias the measurement of productivity and efficiency. This dissertation described three ways to characterize the effect of demand fluctuations. First, a two-dimensional efficiency decomposition (2DED) of profitability is proposed for manufacturing, service, or hybrid production systems to account for the demand effect. The first dimension identifies four components of efficiency: capacity design, demand generation, operations, and demand consumption, using Network Data Envelopment Analysis (Network DEA). The second dimension decomposes the efficiency measures and integrates them into a profitability efficiency framework. Thus, each component's profitability change can be analyzed based on technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and allocative efficiency change. Second, this study proposes a proactive DEA model to account for demand fluctuations and proposes input or output adjustments to maximize effective production. Demand fluctuations lead to variations in the output levels affecting measures of technical efficiency. In the short-run, firms can adjust their variable resources to address the demand fluctuates and perform more efficiently. Proactive DEA is a short-run capacity planning method, proposed to provide decision support to a firm interested in improving the effectiveness of a production system under demand uncertainty using a stochastic programming DEA (SPDEA) approach. This method improves the decision making related to short-run capacity expansion and estimates the expected value of effectiveness given demand. In the third part of the dissertation, a Nash-Cournot equilibrium is identified for an oligopolistic market. The standard assumption in the efficiency literature that firms desire to produce on the production frontier may not hold in an oligopolistic market where the production decisions of all firms will determine the market price, i.e. an increase in a firm's output level leads to a lower market clearing price and potentially-lower profits. Models for both the production possibility set and the inverse demand function are used to identify a Nash-Cournot equilibrium and improvement targets which may not be on the strongly efficient production frontier. This behavior is referred to as rational inefficiency because the firm reduces its productivity levels in order to increase profits.

No description available.

This dissertation studies the competitive dynamics between two non-identical providers competing for customers seeking low-cost and quick service. Providers have generic delay functions where, asdemand received by each provider grows, so does delay in processing customers' requests. Given a pricing or capacity decision by each provider, customers determine the proportion of demand to send to each provider by minimizing generalized cost (monetary cost plus delaycost). This problem is formulated as a bilevel optimization, with providers competing at the upper level subject to the customers' decisions at the lower level. Occurrence of Nash equilibria between the providers is studied.First studied is the providers' problem of making decisions on capacities, while competing for a single customer. Conditions are derived for one provider to claim the entire market share, and for the occurrence of an equilibrium where both providers receive positivedemand. A numerical example in which no equilibrium exists is presented. Both the inelastic and elastic demand cases are studied for this scenario. In a second model, providers make pricing decisions with capacity fixed. Under some assumptions, it is shownthat a Nash equilibrium between providers always exists and a numerical example is presented. These models are then combined, in which providers make capacity decisions where prices equilibrate based on the results from the second model.Two competing customers with demand for a homogeneous product are then introduced, where providers choose prices as they compete for customers. This model is extended to an application along a highway corridor with a high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lane in parallel with a free road and transit line. A government agency chooses the transit service frequency while a private toll operator competes by choosing a toll to charge single-occupancy vehicles who wish to use the HOT lane.This scenario is also modeled as a bilevel program. For the lower level, a new dynamic equilibration process where homogeneous users make mode choice decisions based on previous generalized costs ofusing a particular mode is developed. Two numerical examples are presented showing a unique Nash equilibrium between the providers and an example in which multiple equilibria exist.

<p>Algorithms for finding game-theoretic solutions are now used in several real-world security applications. Many of these applications are based on different but related game-theoretical models collectively known as security games. Much of the research in this area has focused on the two-player setting in which the first player (leader, defender) commits to a strategy, after which the second player (follower, attacker) observes that strategy and responds to it. This is commonly known as the Stackelberg, or leader-follower, model. If none of the players can observe the actions of the others then such a setting is called a simultaneous-move game. A common solution concept in simultaneous-move games is the Nash equilibrium (NE). In the present dissertation, we contribute to this line of research in two ways.</p><p>First, we consider new ways of modeling commitment. We propose the new model in which the leader can commit to a correlated strategy. We show that this model is equivalent to the Stackelberg model in two-player games and is different from the existing models in games with three or more players. We propose an algorithm for computing a solution to this model in polynomial time. We also consider a leader-follower setting in which the players are uncertain about whether the follower can observe. We describe an iterative algorithm for solving such games.</p><p>Second, we analyze the computational complexity of computing Stackelberg and NE strategies in security games. We describe algorithms to solve some variants of the security game model in polynomial time and prove NP-hardness of solving other variants of the model. We also extend the family of security games by allowing the attacker have multiple resources. We provide an algorithm for computing an NE of such games in polynomial time, and we show that computing a Stackelberg strategy is NP-hard.</p> / Dissertation

No description available.

We consider the class of two-player symmetric n x n games with the total bandwagon property (TBP) introduced by Kandori and Rob (1998). We show that a game has TBP if and only if the game has 2^n - 1 symmetric Nash equilibria. We extend this result to bimatrix games by introducing the generalized TBP. This sheds light on the (wrong) conjecture of Quint and Shubik (1997) that any n x n bimatrix game has at most 2^n - 1 Nash equilibria. As for an equilibrium selection criterion, I show the existence of a ½-dominant equilibrium for two subclasses of games with TBP: (i) supermodular games; (ii) potential games. As an application, we consider the minimum-effort game, which does not satisfy TBP, but is a limit case of TBP. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

The thesis deals with market models with random inputs represented by the newsvendor problem for which the randomness is given through a random number of customers. Presented work is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter we present the elementar newsvendor problem as stochastic programming problem with a fixed recourse. In the second chapter we present the multiplayer game theory adapted to the newsvendors problem. Moreover, in the second chapter we extend the problem by the second newsvendor on the market and in the third chapter we generalize the problem for n newsvendors on the market. We deal with the situations that arise in the chapters two and three from the game theory point of view and we study characteristics of a Nash equilibrium. Presented theory is demonstrated on illustrative examples in the ends of the two last chapters. 1

O presente trabalho busca apresentar uma aplicação da teoria dos jogos, de modo a complementar a literatura que utiliza esse referencial teórico e alcançar conclusões pertinentes que desafiam o senso comum. O assunto trabalhado são os debates políticos televisivos e o excesso de acusações realizadas pelos participantes. Através de premissas e expectativas dos jogos não cooperativos, que foram aplicadas sobre os debates de 2º turno das eleições presidenciais de 1989, 2006, 2010 e 2014, a hipótese de que a razão de tal comportamento é a própria organização do jogo, e não uma eventual falta de propostas a serem apresentadas pelos políticos, não é refutada empiricamente. Além disso, sugestões de mudanças de regras desses programas são realizadas, de modo que seu objetivo principal, a exposição de planos de governo, passe a ser atingido. / The present work seeks to present an application of the Game Theory, in order to complement the literature that uses this theoretical reference and to reach pertinent conclusions that defy common sense. The topic that is going to be studied are the televised political debates and the excess of accusations made by the participants. Through assumptions and expectations of non-cooperative games, that were applied to the 2nd round debates of the 1989, 2006, 2010 and 2014 presidential elections, the hypothesis that the reason for such behavior is the organization of the game, not an eventual lack of proposals by the political parties, is not empirically refuted. In addition, suggestions for changes in the rules of these programs are made, in order to ensure that the primary debates\' goal of exposing government plans is reached.

O modelo a ser apresentado consiste em um jogo de preço e localização entre duas firmas. Utiliza-se o pressuposto de que os consumidores têm sua utilidade positivamente afetada por um efeito de rede, ou seja, são diretamente influenciados pela tamanho da demanda do bem. Dispondo os consumidores uniformemente distribuídos dentro de um intervalo linear [0, 1], buscamos encontrar os equilíbrios de preço e localização do jogo proposto. Verificamos que, dados os pressupostos do modelo, existem equilíbrios de Nash para cada subjogo e dependerão da força dos efeitos de rede. Quando os efeitos de rede são fortes o suficiente, os preços praticados serão inicialmente reduzidos até que o monopólio seja alcançado por uma das firmas, quando o preço será elevado e a outra firma passará a cobrar um preço nulo. No subjogo de localizações foi possível identificar que, no caso em que o poder do efeito de rede está acima de um determinado nível, as firmas não irão diferenciar seus produtos e se localizarão em algum ponto dentro do intervalo fechado [1/4 , 3/4] / The model to be presented is a price-location game between two firms. The assumption is that consumers\' utility is positively affected by a network effect, i.e. it is directly influenced by the size of demand. Distributing consumers uniformly in a linear interval [0, 1] we seek the price and location equilibrium of the proposed game. We found that, given the model assumptions, there are Nash equilibria for each subset that depend on the strength of network effects. When network effects are strong enough, prices are initially reduced until the monopoly is reached by one of the firms, then the price rises and the other firm shall charge a null price. In the subgame of locations, when the power of the network effect is above a certain level, the firms will not differentiate their products and will be located at any point within the closed interval [1/4 , 3/4]