Various imperfections in existing market systems prevent the free market
from serving as a truly efficient allocation mechanism, but optimization
of economic activities provides an effective remedial measure.
Cooperative optimization claims that socially optimal and individually
rational solutions to decision problems involving strategic action over
time exist. To ensure that cooperation will last throughout the
agreement period, however, the stringent condition of subgame
consistency is required.
This textbook presents a study of subgame consistent economic
optimization, developing game-theoretic optimization techniques to
establish the foundation for an effective policy menu to tackle the
suboptimal behavior that the conventional market mechanism fails to
resolve.