The problem of rested and restless multi-armed bandits with constrained availability of arms is considered. The states of arms evolve in Markovian manner and the exact states are hidden from the decision maker. First, some structural results on value functions are claimed. Following these results, the optimal policy turns out to be a threshold policy. Further, indexability of rested bandits is ...

This paper examines the political economy of coordination in a simple two-sector model in which individuals’ choice of agricultural technology affects industrialization. We show that multiple equilibria exist such that the economy is either characterized by the use of a traditional agricultural technology and low industrialization or the use of a mechanized technology and high industrialization...

Consider the N -person non-cooperative game in which each player’s cost function and the opponents’ strategies are uncertain. For such an incomplete information game, the new solution concept called a robust Nash equilibrium has attracted much attention over the past several years. The robust Nash equilibrium results from each player’s decision-making based on the robust optimization policy. In...

Cooperative Models in Action: Simulation of a Nash-Bargaining Model of Household Labor Supply with Taxation Several theoretical contributions, starting with McElroy and Horney (1981) and Manser and Brown (1980), have suggested to model household behavior as a Nash-bargaining game. Since then, very few attempts have been made to operationalize cooperative models of household labor supply for pol...

This paper builds a two-country (North, South), two-sector (polluting, nonpolluting) trade model with directed technical change, examining whether unilateral environmental policies can ensure sustainable growth. The polluting good is produced with a clean and a dirty input. A temporary Northern policy combining clean research subsidies and a trade tax can ensure sustainable growth but Northern ...

This paper presents an application of interval methods for simulation of a policy game played by four main agents of economy: profit maximizing companies active on competitive market, the monopolistic trade union (aggregated wage setters), the government and the central bank. After reduction of companies as an active agent, the resulting three agents decision system is modeled as a Stackelberg ...

In this paper, we first present a key approximation result for zero-sum, discounted Markov games, providing bounds on the state-wise loss and the loss in the sup norm resulting from using approximate Q-functions. Then we extend the policy rollout technique for MDPs to Markov games. Using our key approximation result, we prove that, under certain conditions, the rollout technique gives rise to a...

INTRODUCTION No single solution exists to reduce rates of childhood obesity in the United States, but public policy action is essential. A greater understanding of policy maker views on childhood obesity would provide insight into ways that public health advocates can overcome barriers to propose, enact, and implement obesity prevention policies. METHODS We conducted 48 in-depth, qualitative ...