This monograph provides a detailed analysis on fair queueing rules from a normative, a strategic, and a non-cooperative viewpoint. The queueing problem is concerned with the following situation: There is a group of agents who must be served in a facility. The facility can handle only one agent at a time and agents incur waiting costs. The problem is to find the order in which to serve agents and monetary transfers they should receive. The queueing problem has been studied extensively in the recent literature.

This book gathers carefully selected works in Mathematical Economics, on myriad topics including General Equilibrium, Game Theory, Economic Growth, Welfare, Social Choice Theory, Finance. It sheds light on the ongoing discussions that have brought together leading researchers from Latin America and Southern Europe at recent conferences in venues like Porto, Portugal; Athens, Greece; and Guanajuato, Mexico. With this volume, the editors not only contribute to the advancement of research in these areas, but also inspire other scholars around the globe to collaborate and research these vibrant, emerging topics.

This book provides the state of the art in the simulation and gaming study field by systematically collecting excellent papers presented at the 46th International Simulation and Gaming Association annual conference held in Kyoto 17-25 July 2015. Simulation and gaming has been used in a wide variety of areas ranging from early childhood education and school-age children, universities, and professional education, to policy exploration and social problem solving. Moreover, it now been drastically changing its features in the Internet Of Things (IOT) society while taking over a wide variety of aliases, such as serious games and gamification. Most of the papers on which this book's chapters are based were written by academic researchers, both up-and-coming and well known. In addition, simulation and gaming is a translational system science going from theory to clinical cross-disciplinary topics. With this book, therefore, graduate students and higher-level researchers, educators, and practitioners can become familiar with the state-of-the-art academic research on simulation and gaming in the network society of the twenty-first century.

This book gathers a selection of peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Conference on Operations Research (OR 2017), which was held at Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany on September 6-8, 2017. More than 800 scientists, practitioners and students from mathematics, computer science, business/economics and related fields attended the conference and presented more than 500 papers in parallel topic streams, as well as special award sessions. The main theme of the conference and its proceedings was "Decision Analytics for the Digital Economy."

This book reports on advanced theories and cutting-edge applications in the field of soft computing. The individual chapters, written by leading researchers, are based on contributions presented during the 4th World Conference on Soft Computing, held May 25-27, 2014, in Berkeley. The book covers a wealth of key topics in soft computing, focusing on both fundamental aspects and applications. The former include fuzzy mathematics, type-2 fuzzy sets, evolutionary-based optimization, aggregation and neural networks, while the latter include soft computing in data analysis, image processing, decision-making, classification, series prediction, economics, control, and modeling. By providing readers with a timely, authoritative view on the field, and by discussing thought-provoking developments and challenges, the book will foster new research directions in the diverse areas of soft computing.

This book offers a thorough examination of potential game theory and its applications in radio resource management for wireless communications systems and networking. The book addresses two major research goals: how to identify a given game as a potential game, and how to design the utility functions and the potential functions with certain special properties in order to formulate a potential game. After proposing a unifying mathematical framework for the identification of potential games, the text surveys existing applications of this technique within wireless communications and networking problems found in OFDMA 3G/4G/WiFi networks, as well as next-generation systems such as cognitive radios and dynamic spectrum access networks. Professionals interested in understanding the theoretical aspect of this specialized field will find Potential Game Theory a valuable resource, as will advanced-level engineering students. It paves the way for extensive and rigorous research exploration on a topic whose capacity for practical applications is vast but not yet fully exploited.

The book provides a thorough treatment of set functions, games and capacities as well as integrals with respect to capacities and games, in a mathematical rigorous presentation and in view of application to decision making. After a short chapter introducing some required basic knowledge (linear programming, polyhedra, ordered sets) and notation, the first part of the book consists of three long chapters developing the mathematical aspects. This part is not related to a particular application field and, by its neutral mathematical style, is useful to the widest audience. It gathers many results and notions which are scattered in the literature of various domains (game theory, decision, combinatorial optimization and operations research). The second part consists of three chapters, applying the previous notions in decision making and modelling: decision under uncertainty, decision with multiple criteria, possibility theory and Dempster-Shafer theory.

This book describes argumentative tools and strategies that can be used to guide policy decisions under conditions of great uncertainty. Contributing authors explore methods from philosophical analysis and in particular argumentation analysis, showing how it can be used to systematize discussions about policy issues involving great uncertainty. The first part of the work explores how to deal in a systematic way with decision-making when there may be plural perspectives on the decision problem, along with unknown consequences of what we do. Readers will see how argumentation tools can be used for prioritizing among uncertain dangers, for determining how decisions should be framed, for choosing a suitable time frame for a decision, and for systematically choosing among different decision options. Case studies are presented in the second part of the book, showing argumentation in practice in the areas of climate geoengineering, water governance, synthetic biology, nuclear waste, and financial markets. In one example, argumentation analysis is applied to proposals to solve the climate problem with various technological manipulations of the natural climate system, such as massive dispersion of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere. Even after a thorough investigation of such a proposal, doubt remains as to whether all the potential risks have been identified. In such discussions, conventional risk analysis does not have much to contribute since it presupposes that the risks have been identified, whereas the argumentative approach to uncertainty management can be used to systematize discussions.

This book studies storage policies in warehousing systems and maintenance-support strategies for critical operational systems in warehouses, which are the most important issues affecting operational efficiency of warehousing systems. It expands on the theory of class-based storage by considering a finite number of items in store, and also introduces the maintenance-support strategy founded on performance-based contract theory. It is a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners and engineers in the fields of industrial engineering, operations management, operations research and management science.

Sebastian Meiswinkel studies optimization problems that arise at container ports from a classic optimization as well as from a mechanism design point of view. The first part of this dissertation is focused on scheduling problems with selfish job owners that have private information about their characteristics. Afterwards the transportations of containers between the quay and a storage area is considered. Variants of this problem are analyzed for utilization of reach stackers and straddle carriers.

This monograph studies multi-member households or, more generally, socio-economic groups from a purely theoretical perspective and within a general equilibrium framework, in contrast to a sizeable empirical literature. The approach is based on the belief that households, their composition, decisions and behavior within a competitive market economy deserve thorough examination. The authors set out to link the formation, composition, decision-making, and stability of households. They develop general equilibrium models of pure exchange economies in which households can have several, typically heterogeneous members and act as collective decision-making units on the one hand and as competitive market participants on the other hand. Moreover, the more advanced models combine traditional exchange (markets for commodities) and matching (markets for people or partners) and develop implications for welfare, social structures, and economic policy. In the field of family economics, Hans Haller and Hans Gersbach have pioneered a 'market' approach that applies the tools of general equilibrium theory to the analysis of household behavior. This very interesting book presents an overview of their methods and results. This is an inspiring work. Pierre-Andre Chiappori, Columbia University, USA The sophisticated, insightful and challenging analysis presented in this book extends the theory of the multi-person household along an important but relatively neglected dimension, that of general equilibrium theory. It also challenges GE theorists themselves to follow Paul Samuelson in taking seriously the real attributes of that fundamental building block, the household, as a social group whose decisions may not satisfy the standard axioms of individual choice. This synthesis and extension of their earlier work by Gersbach and Haller will prove to be a seminal contribution in its field. Ray Rees, LMU Munich, Germany

This book presents the theory and practical applications of the Master equation approach, which provides a powerful general framework for model building in a variety of disciplines. The aim of the book is to not only highlight different mathematical solution methods, but also reveal their potential by means of practical examples. Part I of the book, which can be used as a toolbox, introduces selected statistical fundamentals and solution methods for the Master equation. In Part II and Part III, the Master equation approach is applied to important applications in the natural and social sciences. The case studies presented mainly hail from the social sciences, including urban and regional dynamics, population dynamics, dynamic decision theory, opinion formation and traffic dynamics; however, some applications from physics and chemistry are treated as well, underlining the interdisciplinary modelling potential of the Master equation approach. Drawing upon the author's extensive teaching and research experience and consulting work, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers, graduate students and professionals alike.

This contributed volume combines approaches of the current inequality debate with aspects of finance based on profound macroeconomic model analyses. Research on inequality has had a long tradition in economics. With the financial crisis from 2007, not only output decreased tremendously, but also inequality has risen since then. The book presents selected contributions of a workshop held at Bielefeld University in 2016 and features additional papers written by experts in the field. A mixture of established researchers and young scholars presents both theoretical and empirical frameworks to analyze the subject.

Facility location theory develops the idea of locating one or more facilities by optimizing suitable criteria such as minimizing transportation cost, or capturing the largest market share. The contributions in this book focus an approach to facility location theory through game theoretical tools highlighting situations where a location decision is faced by several decision makers and leading to a game theoretical framework in non-cooperative and cooperative methods. Models and methods regarding the facility location via game theory are explored and applications are illustrated through economics, engineering, and physics. Mathematicians, engineers, economists and computer scientists working in theory, applications and computational aspects of facility location problems using game theory will find this book useful.

This undergraduate text explores a variety of large-scale phenomena - global warming, ice ages, water, poverty - and uses these case studies as a motivation to explore nonlinear dynamics, power-law statistics, and complex systems. Although the detailed mathematical descriptions of these topics can be challenging, the consequences of a system being nonlinear, power-law, or complex are in fact quite accessible. This book blends a tutorial approach to the mathematical aspects of complex systems together with a complementary narrative on the global/ecological/societal implications of such systems. Nearly all engineering undergraduate courses focus on mathematics and systems which are small scale, linear, and Gaussian. Unfortunately there is not a single large-scale ecological or social phenomenon that is scalar, linear, and Gaussian. This book offers students insights to better understand the large-scale problems facing the world and to realize that these cannot be solved by a single, narrow academic field or perspective. Instead, the book seeks to emphasize understanding, concepts, and ideas, in a way that is mathematically rigorous, so that the concepts do not feel vague, but not so technical that the mathematics get in the way. The book is intended for undergraduate students in a technical domain such as engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, and environmental studies.

This book presents the state-of-the-art in non-linear dynamics and sunspots. These two topics have been the core of an international conference on instability and public policies in a globalized world, organized at Aix-Marseille School of Economics and GREQAM in honor of Jean-Michel Grandmont. He has made significant contributions on general equilibrium theory, monetary theory, learning, aggregation, non-linear dynamics and sunspots. This book assembles contributions by Jean-Michel Grandmont's colleagues, students and friends that have been influenced by his works and that are at the frontier of research in this domain today.

This book covers recent advances in Complex Automated Negotiations as a widely studied emerging area in the field of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. The book includes selected revised and extended papers from the 7th International Workshop on Agent-Based Complex Automated Negotiation (ACAN2014), which was held in Paris, France, in May 2014. The book also includes brief introductions about Agent-based Complex Automated Negotiation which are based on tutorials provided in the workshop, and brief summaries and descriptions about the ANAC'14 (Automated Negotiating Agents Competition) competition, where authors of selected finalist agents explain the strategies and the ideas used by them. The book is targeted to academic and industrial researchers in various communities of autonomous agents and multi-agent systems, such as agreement technology, mechanism design, electronic commerce, related areas, as well as graduate, undergraduate, and PhD students working in those areas or having interest in them.

This contributed volume considers recent advances in dynamic games and their applications, based on presentations given at the 16th Symposium of the International Society of Dynamic Games, held July 9-12, 2014, in Amsterdam. Written by experts in their respective disciplines, these papers cover various aspects of dynamic game theory including differential games, evolutionary games, and stochastic games. They discuss theoretical developments, algorithmic methods, issues relating to lack of information, and applications in areas such as biological or economical competition, stability in communication networks, and maintenance decisions in an electricity market, just to name a few. Advances in Dynamic and Evolutionary Games presents state-of-the-art research in a wide spectrum of areas. As such, it serves as a testament to the vitality and growth of the field of dynamic games and their applications. It will be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience of researchers, practitioners, and advanced graduate students.

Beginning with a concise introduction to the theory of mean-field games (MFGs), this book presents the key elements of the regularity theory for MFGs. It then introduces a series of techniques for well-posedness in the context of mean-field problems, including stationary and time-dependent MFGs, subquadratic and superquadratic MFG formulations, and distinct classes of mean-field couplings. It also explores stationary and time-dependent MFGs through a series of a-priori estimates for solutions of the Hamilton-Jacobi and Fokker-Planck equation. It shows sophisticated a-priori systems derived using a range of analytical techniques, and builds on previous results to explain classical solutions. The final chapter discusses the potential applications, models and natural extensions of MFGs. As MFGs connect common problems in pure mathematics, engineering, economics and data management, this book is a valuable resource for researchers and graduate students in these fields.

This book proposes several commonly used interval-valued solution concepts of interval-valued cooperative games with transferable utility. It thoroughly investigates these solutions, thereby establishing the properties, models, methods, and applications. The first chapter proposes the interval-valued least square solutions and quadratic programming models, methods, and properties. Next, the satisfactory-degree-based non-linear programming models for computing interval-valued cores and corresponding bisection algorithm are explained. Finally, the book explores several simplification methods of interval-valued solutions: the interval-valued equal division and equal surplus division values; the interval-valued Shapley, egalitarian Shapley, and discounted Shapley values; the interval-valued solidarity and generalized solidarity values; and the interval-valued Banzhaf value. This book is designed for individuals from different fields and disciplines, such as decision science, game theory, management science, operations research, fuzzy sets or fuzzy mathematics, applied mathematics, industrial engineering, finance, applied economics, expert system, and social economy as well as artificial intelligence. Moreover, it is suitable for teachers, postgraduates, and researchers from different disciplines: decision analysis, management, operations research, fuzzy mathematics, fuzzy system analysis, applied mathematics, systems engineering, project management, supply chain management, industrial engineering, applied economics, and hydrology and water resources.

This book presents a systematic overview of cutting-edge research in the field of parametric modeling of personal income and wealth distribution, which allows one to represent how income/wealth is distributed within a given population. The estimated parameters may be used to gain insights into the causes of the evolution of income/wealth distribution over time, or to interpret the differences between distributions across countries. Moreover, once a given parametric model has been fitted to a data set, one can straightforwardly compute inequality and poverty measures. Finally, estimated parameters may be used in empirical modeling of the impact of macroeconomic conditions on the evolution of personal income/wealth distribution. In reviewing the state of the art in the field, the authors provide a thorough discussion of parametric models belonging to the " -generalized" family, a new and fruitful set of statistical models for the size distribution of income and wealth that they have developed over several years of collaborative and multidisciplinary research. This book will be of interest to all who share the belief that problems of income and wealth distribution merit detailed conceptual and methodological attention.

Are you looking for new lectures for your course on algorithms, combinatorial optimization, or algorithmic game theory? Maybe you need a convenient source of relevant, current topics for a graduate student or advanced undergraduate student seminar? Or perhaps you just want an enjoyable look at some beautiful mathematical and algorithmic results, ideas, proofs, concepts, and techniques in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science? Gems of Combinatorial Optimization and Graph Algorithms is a handpicked collection of up-to-date articles, carefully prepared by a select group of international experts, who have contributed some of their most mathematically or algorithmically elegant ideas. Topics include longest tours and Steiner trees in geometric spaces, cartograms, resource buying games, congestion games, selfish routing, revenue equivalence and shortest paths, scheduling, linear structures in graphs, contraction hierarchies, budgeted matching problems, and motifs in networks. This volume is aimed at readers with some familiarity of combinatorial optimization, and appeals to researchers, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students alike.

This volume presents 38 classic texts in formal epistemology, and strengthens the ties between research into this area of philosophy and its neighbouring intellectual disciplines. The editors provide introductions to five subsections: Bayesian Epistemology, Belief Change, Decision Theory, Interactive Epistemology and Epistemic Logic. 'Formal epistemology' is a term coined in the late 1990s for a new constellation of interests in philosophy, the origins of which are found in earlier works of epistemologists, philosophers of science and logicians. It addresses a growing agenda of problems concerning knowledge, belief, certainty, rationality, deliberation, decision, strategy, action and agent interaction - and it does so using methods from logic, probability, computability, decision and game theory. The volume also includes a thorough index and suggestions for further reading, and thus offers a complete teaching and research package for students as well as research scholars of formal epistemology, philosophy, logic, computer science, theoretical economics and cognitive psychology.

This Brief uses game-theoretic analysis to debunk the turnout paradox and offers an alternative economic model to elucidate the patterns behind the socioeconomic bias in turnout. The author argues that the turnout paradox-the idea that rational, strategic actors would not vote in an election-is an overstated problem, and that, contrary to widespread belief, game-theoretic models of elections with highly realistic parameters are compatible with high turnout. The author applies the method of stability sets to the study of voting games so as to characterize the behavior of electoral turnout in response to the game's structural parameters. To illustrate the power and potential of this framework, the author then develops a politico-economic model that generates testable theories about the way in which the modern welfare state and redistribution of wealth can shape the patterns of biased turnout that exist in most democracies. By turning a classic problem of rational choice into a source of new methods of analysis this Brief allows game theory to intervene in relevant conversations about the political economy of electoral participation, creating an opportunity for formal methods to make a welcome contribution to the discipline. As such, this Brief will be of use to scholars and student of political science, economics, political economy, and public policy, especially those who work in the tradition of formal methods.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory, SAGT 2017, held in L'Aquila, Italy, in September 2017. The 30 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 66 submissions. The papers cover various important aspects of algorithmic game theory such as auctions, computational aspects of games, congestion games, network and opinion formation games, mechanism design, incentives and regret minimization, and resource allocation.