We discuss an open-loop backward Stackelberg differential game involving single leader and single follower. Unlike most Stackelberg game literature, the state to be controlled is characterized by a backward stochastic differential equation (BSDE) for which the terminal- instead initial-condition is specified as a priori; the decisions of leader consist of a static terminal-perturbation and a dynamic linear-quadratic control. In addition, the terminal control is subject to (convex-closed) pointwise and (affine) expectation constraints. Both constraints are arising from real applications such as mathematical finance. For information pattern: the leader announces both terminal and open-loop dynamic decisions at the initial time while takes account the best response of follower. Then, two interrelated optimization problems are sequentially solved by the follower (a backward linear-quadratic (BLQ) problem) and the leader (a mixed terminal-perturbation and backward-forward LQ (BFLQ) problem). Our open-loop Stackelberg equilibrium is represented by some coupled backward-forward stochastic differential equations (BFSDEs) with mixed initial-terminal conditions. Our BFSDEs also involve nonlinear projection operator (due to pointwise constraint) combining with a Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) system (due to expectation constraint) via Lagrange multiplier. The global solvability of such BFSDEs is also discussed in some nontrivial cases. Our results are applied to one financial example.
This paper is concerned with a Stackelberg game of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs), where the coefficients of the backward system and the cost functionals are deterministic, and the control domain is convex. Necessary and sufficient conditions of the optimality for the follower and the leader are first given for the general problem, by the stochastic maximum principles of BSDEs and forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), respectively. Then a linear-quadratic (LQ) Stackelberg game of BSDEs is investigated under standard assumptions. The state feedback rep…
This paper is concerned with a Stackelberg game of backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs) with partial information, where the information of the follower is a sub-$σ$-algebra of that of the leader. Necessary and sufficient conditions of the optimality for the follower and the leader are first given for the general problem, by the partial information stochastic maximum principles of BSDEs and forward-backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), respectively. Then a linear-quadratic (LQ) Stackelberg game of BSDEs with partial information is investigated. The state estimate fe…
This paper is concerned with a Stackelberg stochastic differential game, where the systems are driven by stochastic differential equation (SDE for short), in which the control enters the randomly disturbed coefficients (drift and diffusion). The control region is postulated to be convex. By making use of the first-order adjoint equation (backward stochastic differential equation, BSDE for short), we are able to establish the Pontryagin's maximum principle for the leader's global Stackelberg solution, within adapted open-loop structure and closed-loop memoryless information one, respectively, w…
This paper is concerned with a linear-quadratic partially observed Stackelberg stochastic differential game with correlated state and observation noises, where the diffusion coefficient does not contain the control variable and the control set is not necessarily convex. Both the leader and the follower have their own observation equations, and the information filtration available to the leader is contained in that to the follower. By spike variational, state decomposition and backward separation techniques, necessary and sufficient conditions of the Stackelberg equilibrium points are derived. …
We consider a controlled linear-quadratic (LQ) large-population system with mixture of three types agents: major leader, minor leaders and minor followers. The Stackelberg-Nash-Cournot (SNC) approximate equilibrium is studied by a major-minor mean-field game (MFG) coupled with a leader-follower Stackelberg game. By variational method, the SNC approximate equilibrium strategy can be represented by some forward-backward-stochastic-differential-equations (FBSDEs) in the open-loop sense. And we pay great effort to give the feedback form of the open-loop strategy by some Riccati equations.
The paper is concerned with a zero-sum Stackelberg stochastic linear-quadratic (LQ, for short) differential game over finite horizons. Under a fairly weak condition, the Stackelberg equilibrium is explicitly obtained by first solving a forward stochastic LQ optimal control problem (SLQ problem, for short) and then a backward SLQ problem. Two Riccati equations are derived in constructing the Stackelberg equilibrium. An interesting finding is that the difference of these two Riccati equations coincides with the Riccati equation associated with the zero-sum Nash stochastic LQ differential game, w…
A linear-quadratic partially observed Stackelberg stochastic differential game with multiple followers and its application to multi-agent formation control
East China University of Science and Technology（华东理工大学）；University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）；Shandong University（山东大学）；Fudan University（复旦大学）
In this paper, we are concerned with the stabilizatbility of Stackelberg game-based systems. In particular, two players are involved in the system where one is the follower to minimize the related cost function and the other is the leader to stabilize the system. The main contribution is to derive the necessary and sufficient condition for the stabilization of the game-based system. The key technique is to explicitly solve the forward and backward difference equations (FBDEs) based on the maximum principle and give the optimal feedback gain matrix of the leader by using the matrix maximum prin…
This paper is concerned with a Stackelberg stochastic differential game with asymmetric noisy observation, with one follower and one leader. In our model, the follower cannot observe the state process directly, but could observe a noisy observation process, while the leader can completely observe the state process. Open-loop Stackelberg equilibrium is considered. The follower first solve an stochastic optimal control problem with partial observation, the maximum principle and verification theorem are obtained. Then the leader turns to solve an optimal control problem for a conditional mean-fie…
In this technical note, we consider the linear-quadratic time-inconsistent mean-field type leader-follower Stackelberg differential game with an adapted open-loop information structure. The objective functionals of the leader and the follower include conditional expectations of state and control (mean field) variables, and the cost parameters could be general nonexponential discounting depending on the initial time. As stated in the existing literature, these two general settings of the objective functionals induce time inconsistency in the optimal solutions. Given an arbitrary control of the …
This paper is concerned with the closed-loop solvability of one kind of linear-quadratic Stackelberg stochastic differential game, where the coefficients are deterministic. The notion of the closed-loop solvability is introduced, which require to be independent of the initial state. The follower's problem is solved first, and the closed-loop optimal strategy is characterized by a Riccati equation, together with an adapted solution to a linear backward stochastic differential equation. Then the necessary conditions of the existence of the leader's nonanticipating closed-loop optimal strategy is…
This paper is about a set-based computing method for solving a general class of two-player zero-sum Stackelberg differential games. We assume that the game is modeled by a set of coupled nonlinear differential equations, which can be influenced by the control inputs of the players. Here, each of the players has to satisfy their respective state and control constraints or loses the game. The main contribution is a backward-forward reachable set splitting scheme, which can be used to derive numerically tractable conservative approximations of such two player games. In detail, we introduce a nove…
We investigate the linear quadratic Gaussian Stackelberg game under a class of nested observation information pattern. Two decision makers implement control strategies relying on different information sets: The follower uses its observation data to design its strategy, whereas the leader implements its strategy using global observation data. We show that the solution requires solving a new type of forward-backward stochastic differential equations whose drift terms contain two types of conditional expectation terms associated to the adjoint variables. We then propose a method to find the funct…
This paper is concerned with a three-level stochastic linear-quadratic Stackelberg differential game with asymmetric information, in which three players participate credited as Player 1, Player 2 and Player 3. Player 3 acts as the leader of Player 2 and Player 1, Player 2 acts as the leader of Player 1 and Player 1 acts as the follower. The asymmetric information considered is: the information available to Player 1 is based on the sub-$σ$-algebra of the information available to Player 2, and the information available to Player 2 is based on the sub-$σ$-algebra of the information available to P…
We study the optimal liquidation problems in target zone models using dynamic programming methods. Such control problems allow for stochastic differential equations with reflections and random coefficients. The value function is characterized with a Neumann problem of backward stochastic partial differential equations (BSPDEs) with singular terminal conditions. The existence and the uniqueness of strong solution to such BSPDEs are addressed, which in turn yields the optimal feedback control. In addition, the unique existence of strong solution to Neumann problem of general semilinear BSPDEs in…
In this paper, we investigate a new model of a linear-quadratic mean-field stochastic Stackelberg differential game with one leader and two followers, in which the leader is allowed to stop her strategy at a random time. Our overarching goal is to find the Stackelberg solution of the leader and followers for such a model. By employing the backward induction method, the state equation is divided into two-stage equations. Moreover, by using the maximum principle and the verification theorem, the Stackelberg solution is obtained for such a model.
In the present paper we derive, via a backward induction technique, and ad hoc maximum principle for an optimal control problem with multiple random terminal times. Therefore we apply the aforementioned result to the case of a linear quadratic controller, providing solutions for the optimal control in terms of Riccati backward SDE with random terminal time. Eventually all the above results are applied to a system of interconnected banks.
Linear-quadratic mixed Stackelberg-zero-sum game for mean-field regime switching system
Shandong University of Finance and Economics（山东财经大学）；Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学）；The Hong Kong Polytechnic University（香港理工大学）；Imperial College（帝国理工学院）
Backward stochastic differential equations extend the martingale representation theorem to the nonlinear setting. This can be seen as path-dependent counterpart of the extension from the heat equation to fully nonlinear parabolic equations in the Markov setting. This paper extends such a nonlinear representation to the context where the random variable of interest is measurable with respect to the information at a finite stopping time. We provide a complete wellposedness theory which covers the semilinear case (backward SDE), the semilinear case with obstacle (reflected backward SDE), and the …
In this paper, we consider a discrete-time stochastic Stackelberg game with a single leader and multiple followers. Both the followers and the leader together have conditionally independent private types, conditioned on action and previous state, that evolve as controlled Markov processes. The objective is to compute the stochastic Stackelberg equilibrium of the game where the leader commits to a dynamic strategy. Each follower's strategy is the best response to the leader's strategies and other followers' strategies while the each leader's strategy is optimum given the followers play the best…
We present a resource-planning game for cyber-security of networked control systems (NCS). The NCS is assumed to be operating in closed-loop using a linear state-feedback $\mathcal{H}_2$ controller. A zero-sum, two-player Stackelberg game (SG) is developed between an attacker and a defender for this NCS. The attacker aims to disable communication of selected nodes and thereby render the feedback gain matrix to be sparse, leading to degradation of closed-loop performance, while the defender aims to prevent this loss by investing in the protection of targeted nodes. Both players trade their $\ma…
Stochastic optimal control problems with constraints on the probability distribution of the final output are considered. Necessary conditions for optimality in the form of a coupled system of partial differential equations involving a forward Fokker-Planck equation and a backward Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation are proved using convex duality techniques.
In this paper, we consider a class of stochastic control problems for stochastic differential equations with random coefficients. The control domain need not to be convex but the control process is not allowed to enter in diffusion term. Moreover, the terminal cost involves a non linear term of the expected value of terminal state. Our purpose is to derive a new version of the Pontryagin's stochastic maximum principle by adopting an idea inspired from the work of Peng [S. Peng, Maximum Principle for Stochastic Optimal Control with Nonconvex Control Domain, Lecture Notes in Control & Informatio…
This paper investigates a hybrid stochastic differential reinsurance and investment game between one reinsurer and two insurers, including a stochastic Stackelberg differential subgame and a non-zero-sum stochastic differential subgame. The reinsurer, as the leader of the Stackelberg game, can price reinsurance premium and invest its wealth in a financial market that contains a risk-free asset and a risky asset. The two insurers, as the followers of the Stackelberg game, can purchase proportional reinsurance from the reinsurer and invest in the same financial market. The competitive relationsh…
