Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science...

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Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE 2015 Some of talk relates to joint work with Argyrios Deligkas, John Fearnley, Paul Goldberg, Paul Spirakis, and Bernhard von Stengel

Transcript of Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science...

Page 1: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix Games:Algorithms and Applications

Rahul Savani

Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of Liverpool

Tutorial at theConference on Web and Internet Economics

WINE 2015

Some of talk relates to joint work with Argyrios Deligkas, John Fearnley,Paul Goldberg, Paul Spirakis, and Bernhard von Stengel

Page 2: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 3: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 4: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 5: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 6: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 7: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

What is a polymatrix game?

Polymatrix games are many-player games

For us, they are graphical games:player interactions are captured by an interaction graph(though sometimes this graph is assumed to be complete)

They model pairwise interactions

Nodes correspond to players

Edges correspond to bimatrix games

Each player chooses a single strategy for all hisbimatrix games and receives the sum of the payoffsfrom his bimatrix games

Page 8: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

History of polymatrix games

Introduced in:

Janovskaya (1968)Equilibrium points in polymatrix games (in Russian)Latvian Mathematical Collection

We will touch on the following papers here:

Both classical:

Eaves 1973 [9]

Howson 1972 [15]

Howson & Rosenthal 1974 [16]

Miller & Zucker 1991 [19]

And more recent:

Cai et al 2015 [4]

Fearnley et al 2015 [8]

Mehta 2012 [18]

Govindan & Wilson 2004 [14]

Rubinstein 2015 [21]

Page 9: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix game

n players i = 1, . . . , n

finite pure strategy sets Si

payoff matrices for every player i and j , i

A ij∈ R

|Si |×|Sj |

For mixed profile (x1, . . . , xn), the payoff to player i is

ui(x1, . . . , xn) =∑i,j

(xi)>A ijx j

Page 10: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix game

n players i = 1, . . . , n

finite pure strategy sets Si

payoff matrices for every player i and j , i

A ij∈ R

|Si |×|Sj |

For mixed profile (x1, . . . , xn), the payoff to player i is

ui(x1, . . . , xn) =∑i,j

(xi)>A ijx j

Page 11: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Example polymatrix game

1 2

3

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 1,1b 1,1 0,0

Equilibria:

1 2 3

a b b

b b a

(0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0.5)

Page 12: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Example polymatrix game

1 2

3

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 1,1b 1,1 0,0

Equilibria:

1 2 3

a b b

b b a

(0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0.5) (0.5, 0.5)

Page 13: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Advantage: succinctness

In terms of the number of players, the size of a

strategic-form game is exponential

polymatrix game is polynomial (quadratic)

# players # actions(per player)

# payoffentries

strategic-formn k

n × k n

polymatrix 2k 2 × (n2)

Page 14: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Applications

Polymatrix games are general modelling tool for multi-playergames via pairwise interactions

We will also discuss some other applications from theliterature:

1 Relaxation Labelling Problems for Artificial Neural Networks [19]

2 Graph Transduction in Machine Learning [10]

3 To model 2-player Bayesian Games [16]

4 As a sub-routine for solving general multi-player games [14]

Page 15: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Take-home message

Many things carry over from bimatrix to polymatrix games:

Rational equilibria

Formulation as a Linear Complementarity Problem

Applicability of complementary pivoting algorithms (e.g.Lemke-Howson, Lemke)

Descent methods using Linear Programming for findingApproximate Equilibria

There are also important differences. For polymatrix games:

PPAD-hard to find ε-Nash equilibrium for constant ε

Finding a pure equilibrium is PLS-hard

Page 16: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Take-home message

Many things carry over from bimatrix to polymatrix games:

Rational equilibria

Formulation as a Linear Complementarity Problem

Applicability of complementary pivoting algorithms (e.g.Lemke-Howson, Lemke)

Descent methods using Linear Programming for findingApproximate Equilibria

There are also important differences. For polymatrix games:

PPAD-hard to find ε-Nash equilibrium for constant ε

Finding a pure equilibrium is PLS-hard

Page 17: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 18: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

@@I

II

T

M

B

l r

3 31 0

2 50 2

0 64 3

Page 19: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

@@I

II

T

M

B

l r

3 31 0

2 50 2

0 64 3

Nash equilibrium =

pair of strategies x, y with

x best response to y andy best response to x

Page 20: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Mixed equilibria

@@I

II

T

M

B

l r

3 31 0

2 50 2

0 64 3

Ay =

3 32 50 6

( 1/3 2/3)T

=

344

xT B =

01/32/3

T 1 0

0 24 3

=(

8/3 8/3)

only only pure best responses canhave

probability > 0

Page 21: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 22: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Linear Complementarity Problem

Given: q ∈ Rn, M ∈ Rn×n Find: z, w ∈ Rn so that

z ≥ 0 ⊥ w = q + Mz ≥ 0

⊥ means orthogonal:

zT w = 0⇔ ziwi = 0 all i = 1, . . . , n

If q ≥ 0, the LCP has trivial solution w = q , z = 0.

Page 23: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Linear Complementarity Problem

Given: q ∈ Rn, M ∈ Rn×n Find: z, w ∈ Rn so that

z ≥ 0 ⊥ w = q + Mz ≥ 0

⊥ means orthogonal:

zT w = 0⇔ ziwi = 0 all i = 1, . . . , n

If q ≥ 0, the LCP has trivial solution w = q , z = 0.

Page 24: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

LP in inequality form

primal : max cT xsubject to Ax ≤ b

x ≥ 0

dual : min yT b

subject to yT A ≥ cT

y ≥ 0

Page 25: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

LP in inequality form

primal : max cT xsubject to Ax ≤ b

x ≥ 0

dual : min yT b

subject to yT A ≥ cT

y ≥ 0

Weak duality: x, y feasible (fulfilling constraints)

⇒ cT x ≤ yT Ax ≤ yT b

Page 26: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

LP in inequality form

primal : max cT xsubject to Ax ≤ b

x ≥ 0

dual : min yT b

subject to yT A ≥ cT

y ≥ 0

Strong duality: primal and dual feasible

⇒ ∃ feasible x, y : cT x = yT b (x, y optimal)

Page 27: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

LCP generalizes LP

LCP encodes complementary slackness of strong duality:

cT x = yT Ax = yT b

⇔ (yT A − cT )x = 0, yT (b − Ax) = 0.

≥ 0 ≥ 0 ≥ 0 ≥ 0

LP⇔ LCP

(xy

)︸︷︷︸

z

≥ 0 ⊥(−c

b

)︸ ︷︷ ︸

q

+

(0 AT

−A 0

)︸ ︷︷ ︸

M

(xy

)︸︷︷︸

z

≥ 0

Page 28: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

LCP generalizes LP

LCP encodes complementary slackness of strong duality:

cT x = yT Ax = yT b

⇔ (yT A − cT )x = 0, yT (b − Ax) = 0.

≥ 0 ≥ 0 ≥ 0 ≥ 0

LP⇔ LCP

(xy

)︸︷︷︸

z

≥ 0 ⊥(−c

b

)︸ ︷︷ ︸

q

+

(0 AT

−A 0

)︸ ︷︷ ︸

M

(xy

)︸︷︷︸

z

≥ 0

Page 29: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 30: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric equilibria of symmetric games

Given: n n payoff matrix A for row player AT for column player

mixed strategy x = probability distribution on {1,...,n} x 0 , 1Tx = 1

equilibrium (x, x) x best response to x

Remark: As general as m n games (A, B).

Page 31: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Best responses

Given: n n payoff matrix A, mixed strategy y of column player

Ay = vector of expected payoffs against y, components (Ay)i

x best response to y

x maximizes expected payoff xTAy

best response condition:

∀i : xi > 0 (Ay)i = u = maxk (Ay)k

Page 32: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric equilibria as LCP solutions

equilibrium (x, x) of game with payoff matrix A x best response to x

1Tx = 1,

x 0 Ax ≤ 1u

w.l.o.g. A > 0 u > 0,

equilibrium (x, x)

z = (1/u) x ( 1/u = 1Tz ),

z 0 Az ≤ 1 "equilibrium z"

Page 33: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Best response polyhedron

0

2

1

1

1 2

2 0A =

1x

2x

u<>x 0,{ ( , ) |x u }1Tx= 1, x uA 1

1

Page 34: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Best response polyhedron

1

1

2

2

211

2

0

2

1

1

1 2

2 0A =

1x

2x

u<>x 0,{ ( , ) |x u }1Tx= 1, x uA 1

1

Page 35: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Best response polyhedron

1

1

2

2

21

1

2

0

2

1

1

1 2

2 0A =

1x

2x

u<>x 0,{ ( , ) |x u }1Tx= 1, x uA 1

(2/3, 1/3)

(completely labeled)equilibrium

1

Page 36: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Projective transformation

1 2

2 0A =

1x

2x

u<>x 0,{ ( , ) |x u }1Tx= 1, x uA 1

>x 0, <xA 1{ ( , ) |1x }1

Page 37: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

>z 0, <zA 1

Best response polytope

{ |z }

2

1

2

1

1 2

2 0A =

2z

1z

Page 38: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 39: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1missing label

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 40: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1missing label

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 41: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1missing label

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 42: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

1missing label

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 43: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

1missing label

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 44: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

found label 1

Symmetric Lemke−Howson algorithm

1z

2z

z3

(bottom)

(back)

2

1

1

2

33

Page 45: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Why Lemke-Howson works

LH finds at least one Nash equilibrium because

• finitely many "vertices"

for nondegenerate (generic) games:

• unique starting edge given missing label

• unique continuation

precludes "coming back" like here:

Page 46: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

END OF LINE (Papadimitriou 1991)

start

end

Given a graph G ofindegree/outdegree at most 1,and a start vertex of indegree 0and outdegree 1,find another vertex of degree1

Page 47: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

END OF LINE (Papadimitriou 1991)

start0000

0101

end

Catch:graph is exponentially largedefined by two boolean circuitsS , P that take a vertex in {0, 1}n

and output its successor andpredecessor

S(0000) = 0101

P(0101) = 0000

Page 48: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

END OF LINE (Papadimitriou 1991)

start

end

A problem belongs to PPAD if itis reducible in poly-time to ENDOF LINE; and PPAD-completeif END OF LINE is reducible toit.

Page 49: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

END OF LINE (Papadimitriou 1991)

start

end

A problem belongs to PPAD if itis reducible in poly-time to ENDOF LINE; and PPAD-completeif END OF LINE is reducible toit.

Not to be confused with

OTHER END OF THIS LINE

output unique vertex endfound by “following the line”from the start – this isPSPACE-hard

Page 50: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

PPAD-hardness for bimatrix games

Theorem (DGP06, CDT06 [5, 6])

It is PPAD-complete to compute an exact Nash equilibrium of abimatrix game.

Later we will see PPAD-hardness for approximate equilibriaof bimatrix and polymatrix games

Page 51: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 52: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Costs instead of payoffs

1 2 2 1

2 0 1 3

aik 3 − aik

payoff cost

with new cost matrix A > 0 :

equilibrium z z 0 Az 1

Page 53: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view

1 + 3

2 + 1

1z ≥ 0

2z1z ≥ 1

2z1z ≥ 1

2z ≥ 0

1z

2z

1

2

1

2

Page 54: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke's algorithm

given LCP

z 0 w = q + Mz 0

Page 55: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke's algorithm

augmented LCP

z 0 w = q + Mz + dz0 0 z0 0

Page 56: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke's algorithm

augmented LCP

z 0 w = q + Mz + dz0 0 z0 0

where

d > 0 covering vectorz0 extra variable

z0 = 0 z w solves original LCP

Page 57: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke's algorithm

augmented LCP

z 0 w = q + Mz + dz0 0 z0 0

Initialization:

z 0 w = q + dz0 0

z0 0 minimal wi = 0 for some i

pivot z0 in, wi out,

can increase zi while maintaining z w .

Page 58: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke's algorithm for

M = 2 1 , d = 2 1 3 1

w1 −1 2 1 2= + z1 + z2 + z0

w2 −1 1 3 1

w1 1 0 −5 −2= + z1 + z2 + w2

z0 1 −1 −3 −1

Page 59: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

w1 −1 2 1 2= + z1 + z2 + z0

w2 −1 1 3 1

w1 1 0 −5 −2= + z1 + z2 + w2

z0 1 −1 −3 −1

z2 0.2 0 −0.2 −0.4= + z1 + w1 + w2

z0 0.4 −1 0.6 0.2

Page 60: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

w1 1 0 −5 −2= + z1 + z2 + w2

z0 1 −1 −3 −1

z2 0.2 0 −0.2 −0.4= + z1 + w1 + w2

z0 0.4 −1 0.6 0.2

z2 0.2 0 −0.2 −0.4= + z0 + w1 + w2

z1 0.4 −1 0.6 0.2

Page 61: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

Page 62: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

1z

2z

1

2

1

2

Page 63: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

0z

1z

2z

1

2

1

2

Page 64: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

1z

2z

0z

1

2

1

2

Page 65: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

1z

2z

0z

1

2

1

2

Page 66: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

1z

2z

0z

1

2

1

2

Page 67: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polyhedral view of Lemke

1z

2z

0z

0z = 0

1

2

1

2

Page 68: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 69: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

The class PLS (Polynomial Local Search)

s Given a starting solutions ∈ S = Σn

a P-time algorithm thatcomputes the cost c(s)

a P-time function that computesa neighbouring solutions′ ∈ N(s) with lower cost, i.e.s.t. c(s′) < c(s), or reportsthat no such neighbour exists:

find a local optimum of thecost function c

“every DAG has a sink”

Page 70: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Local Max Cut

Find local optimum ofMax Cut with the FLIP-neighbourhood (exactly onenode can change sides)

Schaffer and Yannakakis [22] showed that Local Max Cutis PLS-complete (via an extremely involved reduction)

Local Max Cut is to PLS what 3-SAT is to NP

1 2

3 4

1

1

−4

31

−2

Page 71: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Local Max Cut

Find local optimum ofMax Cut with the FLIP-neighbourhood (exactly onenode can change sides)

Schaffer and Yannakakis [22] showed that Local Max Cutis PLS-complete (via an extremely involved reduction)

Local Max Cut is to PLS what 3-SAT is to NP

1 2

3 4

1

1

−4

31

−2

Page 72: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Local Max Cut

Find local optimum ofMax Cut with the FLIP-neighbourhood (exactly onenode can change sides)

Schaffer and Yannakakis [22] showed that Local Max Cutis PLS-complete (via an extremely involved reduction)

Local Max Cut is to PLS what 3-SAT is to NP

1 2

3 4

1

1

−4

31

−2

Solutions:

{{1, 3, 4}, {2}} (actual Max Cut)

Page 73: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Local Max Cut

Find local optimum ofMax Cut with the FLIP-neighbourhood (exactly onenode can change sides)

Schaffer and Yannakakis [22] showed that Local Max Cutis PLS-complete (via an extremely involved reduction)

Local Max Cut is to PLS what 3-SAT is to NP

1 2

3 4

1

1

−4

31

−2

Solutions:

{{1, 3, 4}, {2}} (actual Max Cut){{3}, {1, 2, 4}}

Page 74: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Pure Equilibrium in Polymatrix Game

1 2

3

2

−1 2

Page 75: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Pure Equilibrium in Polymatrix Game

1 2

3

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 -1,-1b -1,-1 0,0

Page 76: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Pure Equilibrium in Polymatrix Game

1 2

3

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 2,2b 2,2 0,0

a ba 0,0 -1,-1b -1,-1 0,0

The bimatrix games (A ,B) we used are examples of teamgames because A = B; also called coordination games

Page 77: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Proof that the reduction is correct

Define potential function for “team” polymatrix games

Φ(S) =12

∑i

ui(S)

This is an exact potential function:when i changes strategy then the potential functionchanges by exactly i’s change in utilityFact: in exact potential games,pure equilibria↔ local optima of exact potentialfunctionOur exact potential function value equals value of the cutfor all strategy profiles

Page 78: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Summary on PLS and polymatrix games

In contrast to bimatrix games, computing a pureequilibrium in polymatrix games is PLS-hard

Next, an application of team polymatrix games

Page 79: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: Graph Transduction

semi-supervised learning: estimate a classificationfunction defined over graph of labeled and unlabeled nodes

ie. propagate labels to unlabelled nodes in consistent way

INPUT: Weighted graph, where some nodes are labelled;

edge weights represent similarities

one approach is to use global optimization

an alternative approach is to use a polymatrix game

Note: without the labelled examples, this is a clusteringproblem; also see e.g., “Hedonic Clustering Games” [12, 2]

Page 80: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: Graph Transduction

semi-supervised learning: estimate a classificationfunction defined over graph of labeled and unlabeled nodes

ie. propagate labels to unlabelled nodes in consistent way

INPUT: Weighted graph, where some nodes are labelled;

edge weights represent similarities

one approach is to use global optimization

an alternative approach is to use a polymatrix game

Note: without the labelled examples, this is a clusteringproblem; also see e.g., “Hedonic Clustering Games” [12, 2]

Page 81: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: Graph Transduction

semi-supervised learning: estimate a classificationfunction defined over graph of labeled and unlabeled nodes

ie. propagate labels to unlabelled nodes in consistent way

INPUT: Weighted graph, where some nodes are labelled;

edge weights represent similarities

one approach is to use global optimization

an alternative approach is to use a polymatrix game

Note: without the labelled examples, this is a clusteringproblem; also see e.g., “Hedonic Clustering Games” [12, 2]

Page 82: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: Graph Transduction

1 2

3

a ba 2,2 0,0b 0,0 2,2

a ba 2,2 0,0b 0,0 2,2

a ba -1,-1 0,0b 0, 0 -1,-1

Note: asymmetric similarity measures have also beenconsidered. Then we may no longer have pure equilibria, butmixed equilibria are still considered meaningful

Page 83: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: Graph Transduction

1 2

3

a ba 2,2 0,0b 0,0 2,2

a ba 2,2 0,0b 0,0 2,2

a ba -1,-1 0,0b 0, 0 -1,-1

Note: asymmetric similarity measures have also beenconsidered. Then we may no longer have pure equilibria, butmixed equilibria are still considered meaningful

Page 84: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Open question for team polymatrix games

Can we compute a mixed Nash equilibrium of a teampolymatrix game in polynomial-time? [7]

Note that this problem lies in PPAD ∩ PLS so is unlikely to behard for either of them

Question:

Can anyone think of an easy mixed equilibrium for thelocal max cut game?

Suggested reading:

Daskalakis & PapadimitriouContinuous local search SODA 2011

Page 85: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Open question for team polymatrix games

Can we compute a mixed Nash equilibrium of a teampolymatrix game in polynomial-time? [7]

Note that this problem lies in PPAD ∩ PLS so is unlikely to behard for either of them

Question:

Can anyone think of an easy mixed equilibrium for thelocal max cut game?

Suggested reading:

Daskalakis & PapadimitriouContinuous local search SODA 2011

Page 86: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Open question for team polymatrix games

Can we compute a mixed Nash equilibrium of a teampolymatrix game in polynomial-time? [7]

Note that this problem lies in PPAD ∩ PLS so is unlikely to behard for either of them

Question:

Can anyone think of an easy mixed equilibrium for thelocal max cut game?

Suggested reading:

Daskalakis & PapadimitriouContinuous local search SODA 2011

Page 87: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 88: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix games→ LCPs

At least three different reductions to LCP; each gives analmost-complementarity algorithm

1 Howson 1972 [15]2 Eaves 1973 [9] (more general)3 Miller and Zucker 1991 [19]

Instead we are going to present bilinear games whichappeared in Ruta Mehta’s thesis [18, 13], and which are aspecialization of Eave’s games

Page 89: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Bilinear Games

Inspired by sequence form of Koller, Megiddo, von Stengel(1996) [17]

They turn out to be are a special case of Eaves’ polymatrixgames with joint constraints [9], where we restrict to:

two players

polytopal strategy constraint sets

Page 90: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Bilinear Games

A bilinear game is given by:

two m × n dimensional payoff matrices A and B

polytopal strategy constraint sets:

X = {x ∈ Rm| Ex = e, x ≥ 0}

Y = {y ∈ Rn| Fy = f , y ≥ 0}

With payoffs xT Ay and xT By

for the strategy profile (x, y) ∈ X × Y

Page 91: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Bilinear Games

A bilinear game is given by:

two m × n dimensional payoff matrices A and B

polytopal strategy constraint sets:

X = {x ∈ Rm| Ex = e, x ≥ 0}

Y = {y ∈ Rn| Fy = f , y ≥ 0}

(x, y) ∈ X × Y is a Nash equilibrium iff

xT Ay ≥ xT A for all x ∈ X and

xT By ≥ xT By for all y ∈ Y

Page 92: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

An LCP for Bilinear Games

Encode best response condition via an LP:

maxx

x>(Ay)

s.t. x>E> = e>, x ≥ 0

Page 93: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

An LCP for Bilinear Games

Encode best response condition via an LP:

maxx

x>(Ay)

s.t. x>E> = e>, x ≥ 0

The dual LP has an unconstrained vector p:

miny

e>p

s.t. E>p ≥ Ay

We will again use complementary slackness:

Page 94: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

An LCP for Bilinear Games

Encode best response condition via an LP:

maxx

x>(Ay)

s.t. x>E> = e>, x ≥ 0

The dual LP has an unconstrained vector p:

miny

e>p

s.t. E>p ≥ Ay

We will again use complementary slackness:

Feasible x, p are optimal iff x>(Ay) = e>p = x>E>p, i.e.,

Page 95: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

An LCP for Bilinear Games

Encode best response condition via an LP:

maxx

x>(Ay)

s.t. x>E> = e>, x ≥ 0

The dual LP has an unconstrained vector p:

miny

e>p

s.t. E>p ≥ Ay

We will again use complementary slackness:

x>(−Ay + E>p) = 0

Page 96: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

An LCP for Bilinear Games

Given: q ∈ Rn, M ∈ Rn×n Find: z, w ∈ Rn so that

M =

−A E> −E>

−B> F> −F>

−EE−F

F

q =

00e−e

f−f

z = (x, y, p′, p′′, q′, q′′)>

wherep = p′ − p′′, q = q′ − q′′

Page 97: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Lemke’s algorithm for Bilinear Games

Theorem 4.1 in [17] says:

If we have

1 z>Mz ≥ 0 for all z ≥ 0, and

2 z ≥ 0, Mz ≥ 0 and z>Mz = 0 imply that z>q ≥ 0

then

Lemke’s algorithm computes an solution to the LCP M, q

Page 98: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix games as Bilinear Games

Polymatrix game (with complete interaction graph):

players i = 1, . . . , n, with pure strategy sets Si

and payoff matrices for player i,

A ij∈ R

|Si |×|Sj |

for pairs of players (i, j)

let (x1, . . . , xn) in ∆(Si) × · · · ×∆(Sn) be a mixed strategyprofile, then the payoff to player i is

ui(x1, . . . , xn) =∑i,j

(xi)>A ijx j

Page 99: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Polymatrix games as Bilinear Games

(Symmetric) bilinear game: (A ,A>,E,E, e, e)

payoff matrices (A ,A>)

strategy constraints Ex = e

where e = 1n, and

A =

0 A12 · · · A1n

A21 0 A2n

.... . .

An1 An2 · · · 0

E =

1>

|S1|0 · · · 0

0 1>

|S2|· · · 0

.... . .

0 0 · · · 1>

|Sn |

Page 100: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Reductions for sparse polymatrix games

Existing reductions apply to polymatrix games oncomplete interaction graphs

For other interactions graphs, missing edges are replacedwith games with all 0 payoffs

Can we come up with more space efficient reductionsfor non-complete interaction graphs?

Page 101: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 102: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Approximation - Background

Definition (ε-Nash equilibrium)

A strategy profile is an ε-Nash equilibrium if:

no player can gain more than ε by a unilateral deviation

(additive notion of approximation)

Page 103: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Approximation - Background

Definition (ε-Nash equilibrium)

A strategy profile is an ε-Nash equilibrium if:

no player can gain more than ε by a unilateral deviation

(additive notion of approximation)

Theorem (Rubinstein 2014)

There exists a constant ε such that it is PPAD-hard to find anε-Nash equilibrium of a n-player polymatrix game.

Page 104: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Approximation - Background

Definition (ε-Nash equilibrium)

A strategy profile is an ε-Nash equilibrium if:

no player can gain more than ε by a unilateral deviation

(additive notion of approximation)

Theorem (CDT 2006)

If there is an FPTAS for computing an ε-Nash of a bimatrixgame, then PPAD = P.

Page 105: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Background: bimatrix games

What is the smallest ε such that an ε-Nash equilibrium can becomputed in polynomial time (payoffs in [0, 1])?

HISTORY:

0.5 Daskalakis Mehta Papadimitriou (WINE 06)

0.382 DMP (EC 2007)

0.364 Bosse Byrka Markakis (WINE 07)

0.339 Tsaknakis Spirakis (WINE 07)

Tsaknakis & Spirakis use gradient descent

Page 106: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Background: bimatrix games

What is the smallest ε such that an ε-Nash equilibrium can becomputed in polynomial time (payoffs in [0, 1])?

HISTORY:

0.5 Daskalakis Mehta Papadimitriou (WINE 06)

0.382 DMP (EC 2007)

0.364 Bosse Byrka Markakis (WINE 07)

0.339 Tsaknakis Spirakis (WINE 07)

Tsaknakis & Spirakis use gradient descent

Page 107: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Background: many-player games

Two players: 0.3393 [Tsaknakis and Spirakis]

n players: 1 − 1/n [obvious extension of DMP]

DMP idea extends solution for n − 1 players to n players:

Three players: 0.6022

Four players: 0.7153

Guarantee goes to 1 as n goes to infinity

Next we show for the class of n-player polymatrix games:(0.5 + δ) in time polynomial in the input size and 1/δ

Page 108: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Background: many-player games

Two players: 0.3393 [Tsaknakis and Spirakis]

n players: 1 − 1/n [obvious extension of DMP]

DMP idea extends solution for n − 1 players to n players:

Three players: 0.6022

Four players: 0.7153

Guarantee goes to 1 as n goes to infinity

Next we show for the class of n-player polymatrix games:(0.5 + δ) in time polynomial in the input size and 1/δ

Page 109: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Background: many-player games

Two players: 0.3393 [Tsaknakis and Spirakis]

n players: 1 − 1/n [obvious extension of DMP]

DMP idea extends solution for n − 1 players to n players:

Three players: 0.6022

Four players: 0.7153

Guarantee goes to 1 as n goes to infinity

Next we show for the class of n-player polymatrix games:(0.5 + δ) in time polynomial in the input size and 1/δ

Page 110: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Gradient descent on max regret

Extend method of Tsaknakis and Spirakis

Definition

For a strategy profile x we define f(x) as the regret:

f(x) := maxi∈players

u∗i(x) − ui(x)

define δ-stationary point of f via combinatorial “gradient”

LP to find a corresponding steepest descent direction

Page 111: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Gradient descent on max regret

Extend method of Tsaknakis and Spirakis

Definition

For a strategy profile x we define f(x) as the regret:

f(x) := maxi∈players

u∗i(x) − ui(x)

define δ-stationary point of f via combinatorial “gradient”

LP to find a corresponding steepest descent direction

Page 112: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

The algorithm

1 Choose an arbitrary strategy profile x ∈ ∆

2 Solve steepest descent LP with input x to obtain x′

3 Set x := x + α(x′ − x), where α = δδ+2

4 If f(x) ≤ 0.5 + δ then stop, otherwise go to step 2

Page 113: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

The result

Theorem

A (0.5 + δ)-Nash equilibrium of a polymatrix game can befound in time polynomial in the size of the game and in 1/δ.

Proof sketch:

We do not get stuck at a bad point: Every δ-stationarypoint x∗ of f is a (0.5 + δ)-NE, i.e., f(x∗) ≤ 0.5 + δ

Each descent step makes enough progress in reducing f ,so that after polynomially many iterations f(x) ≤ 0.5 + δ

Page 114: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Open questions on approximate equilibria

Better upper bounds:

Constant number of players or strategies

Extend methods for bimatrix games that solve a single LP

ε-well-supported approximate equilibria

Lower bounds:

It is PPAD-hard to find an ε-Nash equilibrium of a polymatrixgame for a constant but very small ε [Rubinstein]

Improve the value of ε in such a lower bound

Page 115: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: 2-player Bayesian games

Howson and Rosenthal (1974) observed that these gamescan be written as a complete bipartite polymatrix games

Types of P1 Types of P2

1

2

3

1

2

The descent algorithm gives a 1/2-Nash but this is easilyachievable by the DMP method

Open question: do other methods for bimatrix games alsoextend to Bayesian two-player games?

Page 116: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Application: 2-player Bayesian games

Howson and Rosenthal (1974) observed that these gamescan be written as a complete bipartite polymatrix games

Types of P1 Types of P2

1

2

3

1

2

The descent algorithm gives a 1/2-Nash but this is easilyachievable by the DMP method

Open question: do other methods for bimatrix games alsoextend to Bayesian two-player games?

Page 117: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Enumerating equilibria

All methods we discussed are to find one sampleequilibrium

Often a proper analysis of a game requires anenumeration of all equilibria

Well-developed enumeration methods for bimatrixgames [1]

It is an interesting direction to develop similar methodsfor polymatrix games

Page 118: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Outline

1 Nash equilibria of bimatrix games

2 Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs)

3 The Lemke–Howson Algorithm and the class PPAD

4 Lemke’s algorithm

5 PLS-hardness of pure equilibria, Graph Transduction

6 Reduction from Polymatrix Game to LCP

7 Descent method for ε-Nash equilibria of polymatrix games

8 Other recent work on polymatrix games

Page 119: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

Other recent work on polymatrix games

Solving general multi-player games [14] (also see [11])

Zero-sum polymatrix games [4]

Efficiency of equilibria in polymatrix coordinationgames [20]

QPTAS for tree polymatrix games [3]

Page 120: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References I

[1] David Avis, Gabriel D. Rosenberg, Rahul Savani, and Bernhardvon Stengel.Enumeration of Nash equilibria for two-player games.Economic Theory, 42(1):9–37, 2009.

[2] Haris Aziz and Rahul Savani.Hedonic Games, chapter 15.Cambridge University Press, 2015.In press.

[3] Siddharth Barman, Katrina Ligett, and Georgios Piliouras.Approximating nash equilibria in tree polymatrix games.In Algorithmic Game Theory - 8th International Symposium,(SAGT), pages 285–296, 2015.

Page 121: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References II

[4] Yang Cai, Ozan Candogan, Constantinos Daskalakis, andChristos Papadimitriou.Zero-sum polymatrix games: A generalization of minmax.Mathematics of Operations Research, To appear.

[5] Xi Chen, Xiaotie Deng, and Shang-Hua Teng.Settling the complexity of computing two-player Nash equilibria.Journal of the ACM, 56(3):14:1–14:57, 2009.

[6] Constantinos Daskalakis, Paul W. Goldberg, and Christos H.Papadimitriou.The complexity of computing a Nash equilibrium.SIAM Journal on Computing, 39(1):195–259, 2009.

Page 122: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References III

[7] Constantinos Daskalakis and Christos Papadimitriou.Continuous local search.In Proceedings of the twenty-second annual ACM-SIAMsymposium on Discrete Algorithms, pages 790–804. SIAM,2011.

[8] Argyrios Deligkas, John Fearnley, Rahul Savani, and PaulSpirakis.Computing approximate Nash equilibria in polymatrix games.Algorithmica, 2015.Online first; Preliminary conference version appeared at WINE2014.

[9] B Curtis Eaves.Polymatrix games with joint constraints.SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 24(3):418–423, 1973.

Page 123: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References IV

[10] Aykut Erdem and Marcello Pelillo.Graph transduction as a noncooperative game.Neural Computation, 24(3):700–723, 2012.

[11] Uriel Feige and Inbal Talgam-Cohen.A direct reduction from k-player to 2-player approximate Nashequilibrium.In Algorithmic Game Theory - Third International Symposium(SAGT), pages 138–149, 2010.

[12] Moran Feldman, Liane Lewin-Eytan, and Joseph Seffi Naor.Hedonic clustering games.In Proceedings of the 24th Annual ACM symposium onParallelism in Algorithms and Architectures SPAA, pages267–276. ACM, 2012.

Page 124: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References V

[13] Jugal Garg, Albert Xin Jiang, and Ruta Mehta.Bilinear games: Polynomial time algorithms for rank basedsubclasses.In Internet and Network Economics - 7th InternationalWorkshop, WINE, pages 399–407, 2011.

[14] Srihari Govindan and Robert Wilson.Computing Nash equilibria by iterated polymatrix approximation.Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 28(7):1229–1241,April 2004.

[15] Joseph T. Howson.Equilibria of polymatrix games.Management Science, 18(5):pp. 312–318, 1972.

Page 125: Polymatrix Games: Algorithms and Applications · Rahul Savani Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Tutorial at the Conference on Web and Internet Economics WINE

References VI

[16] Jr. Howson, Joseph T. and Robert W. Rosenthal.Bayesian equilibria of finite two-person games with incompleteinformation.Management Science, 21(3):pp. 313–315, 1974.

[17] Daphne Koller, Nimrod Megiddo, and Bernhard von Stengel.Efficient computation of equilibria for extensive two-persongames.Games and Economic Behavior, 14(2):247–259, 1996.

[18] Ruta Mehta.Nash Equilibrium Computation in Various Games.PhD thesis, Dept. of CSE, IIT-Bombay, 8 2012.

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References VII

[19] Douglas A. Miller and Steven W. Zucker.Copositive-plus lemke algorithm solves polymatrix games.Operations Research Letters, 10(5):285 – 290, 1991.

[20] Mona Rahn and Guido Schafer.Efficient equilibria in polymatrix coordination games.CoRR, abs/1504.07518, 2015.

[21] Aviad Rubinstein.Inapproximability of Nash equilibrium.In Proceedings of the Forty-Seventh Annual ACM onSymposium on Theory of Computing, STOC, pages 409–418,2015.

[22] Alejandro A Schaffer and Mihalis Yannakakis.Simple local search problems that are hard to solve.SIAM journal on Computing, 20(1):56–87, 1991.