Abstract
We focus on the problem of computing an ε-Nash equilibrium of a bimatrix game, when ε is an absolute constant. We present a simple algorithm for computing a \(\frac{3}{4}\)-Nash equilibrium for any bimatrix game in strongly polynomial time and we next show how to extend this algorithm so as to obtain a (potentially stronger) parameterized approximation. Namely, we present an algorithm that computes a \(\frac{2+\lambda}{4}\)-Nash equilibrium, where λ is the minimum, among all Nash equilibria, expected payoff of either player. The suggested algorithm runs in time polynomial in the number of strategies available to the players.
Partially supported by the Future and Emerging Technologies Unit of EC (IST priority – 6th FP), under contract no. FP6-021235-2 (ARRIVAL) and 015964 “Algorithmic Principles for Building Efficient Overlay Computers”(AEOLUS),and by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology of the Greek Ministry of Development within the programme PENED 2003.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Althöfer, I.: On Sparse Approximations to Randomized Strategies and Convex Combinations. Linear Algebra and Applications 199, 339–355 (1994)
Barany, I., Vempala, S., Vetta, A.: Nash Equilibria in Random Games. In: Proceedings of the 46th Annual IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS 2005), pp. 123–131 (2005)
Chen, X., Deng, X.: Settling the Complexity of 2-Player Nash-Equilibrium. Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECCC), TR05-140 (2005)
Chen, X., Deng, X., Teng, S.-H.: Computing Nash Equilibria: Approximation and Smoothed Complexity. Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECCC), TR06-023 (2006)
Daskalakis, C., Goldberg, P.W., Papadimitriou, C.: The Complexity of Computing a Nash Equilibrium. Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECCC), TR05-115 (2005)
Daskalakis, C., Mehta, A., Papadimitriou, C.: A Note on Approximate Nash Equilibria. In: Spirakis, P.G., Mavronicolas, M., Kontogiannis, S.C. (eds.) WINE 2006. LNCS, vol. 4286, pp. 297–306. Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
Daskalakis, C., Papadimitriou, C.: Three-player Games are Hard. Electronic Colloquium on Computational Complexity (ECCC), TR05-139 (2005)
Lemke, C.E.: Bimatrix Equilibrium Points and Mathematical Programming. Management Science 11, 681–689 (1965)
Lemke, C.E., Howson, J.T.: Equilibrium Points of Bimatrix Games. J. Soc. Indust. Appl. Math. 12, 413–423 (1964)
Lipton, R.J., Markakis, E., Mehta, A.: Playing Large Games using Simple Startegies. In: EC 2003: Proceedings of the 4th ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce, pp. 36–41 (2003)
Nash, J.: Noncooperative Games. Annals of Mathematics 54, 289–295 (1951)
Papadimitriou, C.H.: On Inefficient Proofs of Existence and Complexity Classes. In: Proceedings of the 4th Czechoslovakian Symposium on Combinatorics (1991)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kontogiannis, S.C., Panagopoulou, P.N., Spirakis, P.G. (2006). Polynomial Algorithms for Approximating Nash Equilibria of Bimatrix Games. In: Spirakis, P., Mavronicolas, M., Kontogiannis, S. (eds) Internet and Network Economics. WINE 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4286. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11944874_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11944874_26
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68138-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68141-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)