A Strategic Learning Algorithm for State-based Games

Abstract: Learning algorithm design for state-based games is investigated. A heuristic uncoupled learning algorithm, which is a two memory better reply with inertia dynamics, is proposed. Under certain reasonable conditions it is proved that for any initial state, if all agents in the state-based game follow the proposed learning algorithm, the action state pair converges almost surely to an action invariant set of recurrent state equilibria. The design relies on global and local searches with finite memory, inertia, and randomness. Finally, existence of time-efficient universal learning algorithm is studied. A class of state-based games is presented to show that there is no universal learning algorithm converging to a recurrent state equilibrium.