Learning Quadratic Games on Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces two new methods to learn the underlying network structure of quadratic games from observed actions, enabling better understanding of strategic interactions without prior network knowledge.

Contribution

The paper presents novel frameworks for jointly learning network structure and game parameters from action data in quadratic network games, filling a gap in existing literature.

Findings

Effective in synthetic experiments

Successful application to real-world data

Theoretically grounded approach

Abstract

Individuals, or organizations, cooperate with or compete against one another in a wide range of practical situations. Such strategic interactions are often modeled as games played on networks, where an individual's payoff depends not only on her action but also on that of her neighbors. The current literature has largely focused on analyzing the characteristics of network games in the scenario where the structure of the network, which is represented by a graph, is known beforehand. It is often the case, however, that the actions of the players are readily observable while the underlying interaction network remains hidden. In this paper, we propose two novel frameworks for learning, from the observations on individual actions, network games with linear-quadratic payoffs, and in particular, the structure of the interaction network. Our frameworks are based on the Nash equilibrium of such games and involve solving a joint optimization problem for the graph structure and the individual marginal benefits. Both synthetic and real-world experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed frameworks, which have theoretical as well as practical implications for understanding strategic interactions in a network environment.