Article ID: | iaor200972003 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 143 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 589 |
End Page Number: | 600 |
Publication Date: | Dec 2009 |
Journal: | Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications |
Authors: | Olsder G J |
Keywords: | Stackelberg game |
Games are considered in which the role of the players is a hierarchical one. Some players behave as leaders, others as followers. Such games are named after Stackelberg. In the current paper, a special type of these games is considered, known in the literature as inverse Stackelberg games. In such games, the leader (or: leaders) announces his strategy as a mapping from the follower (or: followers) decision space into his own decision space. Arguments for studying such problems are given. The routine way of analysis, leading to a study of composed functions, is not very fruitful. Other approaches are given, mainly by studying specific examples. Phenomena in problems with more than one leader and/or follower are studied within the context of the inverse Stackelberg concept. As a side issue, expressions like ‘two captains on a ship’ and ‘divide and conquer’ are given a mathematical foundation.