Robust Stackelberg Equilibria

Jiarui Gan, Minbiao Han, Jibang Wu, Haifeng Xu

Abstract: This paper provides a systematic study of the robust Stackelberg equilibrium (RSE), which naturally generalizes the widely adopted solution concept of the strong Stackelberg equilibrium (SSE). The RSE accounts for any possible up-to-δ suboptimal follower responses in Stackelberg games and is adopted to improve the robustness of the leader's strategy. While a few variants of robust Stackelberg equilibrium have been considered in previous literature, the RSE solution concept we consider is importantly different --- in some sense, it relaxes previously studied robust Stackelberg strategies and is applicable to much broader sources of uncertainties.