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Preface to the Special Issue on Computational Economics OPERATIONS RESEARCH informs Vol. 58, No. 4, Part 2 of 2, July–August 2010, pp. 1035–1036 ® issn 0030-364X eissn 1526-5463 10 5804 1035 doi 10.1287/opre.1100.0842 © 2010 INFORMS Preface to the Special Issue on Computational Economics Kenneth Judd Revolution and Peace, Hoover Institution on War, Stanford, California 94305, [email protected] Garrett van Ryzin Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, [email protected] Economics is thestudy of how scarceresourcesareallo- Costs,” by Schulz and Uhan, looks at thecomplexityof cated. Operations research studies how to accomplish goals computing theleastcorevaluein cooperativegameswith in the least costly manner. These fields have much to offer supermodular cost structures. Such games arise in a variety each other in terms of challenging problems that need to of operations research problems—scheduling, for example. be solved and the techniques to solve them. This was the Theauthors show that such problemsarestrongly NP hard, caseafterWorld War II, partly becausetheindividuals who but for a special case of single-machine scheduling the went on to be the leading scholars in economics and oper- Shapleyvalueis in theleastcore. ations research worked together during WWII. In fact, the “Multigrid Techniques in Economics,” by Speight, is a two fields share many early luminaries, including Arrow, good example of how advances in computational physics, Dantzig, Holt, Kantorovich, Koopmans, Modigliani, Scarf, in this casecomputational fluid dynamics, can beapplied and von Neumann. Unfortunately, as new generations of to economic problems. Multigrid methods are a relatively scholars took charge, those ties weakened, resulting in lit- new approach to solving partial differential equations, and tle interaction between operations research scholars and this paper explains how they can be applied to dynamic economists in the past three decades. economic problems. In recent years, some economists and applied mathemati- Mechanism design has been an active field in game the- cians have worked to reestablish ties between these fields. ory, but there has been relatively little work on devel- This special issue of Operations Research is an important oping computational methods that can be used to imple- step in that effort. It is not meant to be just a collection of ment the theory in concrete ways. This issue contains current research that is of interest to both economists and two papers that improve our ability to apply mecha- operations researchers. It is an example of what we hope nism design theory: “Multidimensional Mechanism Design: is a future in which we will not need “special issues” to Finite-Dimensional Approximations and Efficient Compu- describe computational economics. tation” by Belloni, Lopomo, and Wang, and “Endogenous Thepapersin this issuecovera broad rangeof mate- rial, including the introduction of advanced mathematical Selection and Moral Hazard in Compensation Contracts” techniques to computational economics, algorithm devel- by Armstrong, Larcker, and Su. opment and analysis, examples where advanced computa- Developing methods for computing Nash equilibria of tional methods are used to solve important economic prob- games has been a staple of computational economics, and lems, and examples of where computational ideas are used this issuecontains threecontributions. “On a Markov Game to motivate concepts of bounded rationality. with One-Sided Information,” by Hörner, Rosenberg, Solan, “Tackling Multiplicity of Equilibria with Gröbner and Vieille, tackles the difficult computational problems Bases,” by Kubler and Schmedders, shows how algebraic presented by asymmetric information. In “A User’s Guide geometry methods can be used to address the problem of to Solving Dynamic Stochastic Games Using the Homo- multiplicity of equilibria. In the past 30 years, the field topy Method,” Borkovsky, Doraszelski, and Kryukov apply of algebraic geometry has been an example of where the homotopy methodsto exploretheequilibriummanifold of mathematical theory has been spurred on by the explod- stochastic games, illustrating a tool that could be used for ing power of computers. The combination of theory, algo- many types of games. “Intertemporal Pricing and Consumer rithms, and computer power now makes it possible to apply Stockpiling,” by Su, develops a solution method for the these methods to economic problems. game between a seller and the consumers of durable goods. Another important task of computational theory is to The key step is to decouple each buyer’s problem into a determine how hard problems are. “Sharing Supermodular separate dynamic program. 1035 Judd and van Ryzin: Preface to the Special Issue on Computational Economics 1036 Operations Research 58(4, Part 2 of 2), pp. 1035–1036, © 2010 INFORMS The next two papers refine current techniques to provide approximation of Markov perfect equilibrium, and provides more stable and efficient methods. “Option Pricing Under both algorithms for computing such equilibria and new GARCH Processes Using PDE Methods,” by Breton and bounds on the resulting approximation error. deFrutos, advancestheliteratureonusing PDE methodsto A specialissuelikethis could not happenwithout the solveoption pricing problems.“MonotoneApproximation efforts of many people who are not mentioned here. First, of Decision Problems,” by Chehrazi and Weber, shows how we want to thank the referees for their service. Evaluating onecan imposequalitativeinformation impliedby theory work that crosses disciplinary lines is often a challenge, concerning shape to help approximate an unknown decision and we owe our referees special gratitude. Second, we want rule. to acknowledge the tremendous interest in this issue. We Theultimatepurposeof computational economicsis received approximately 125 submissions, roughly equally to apply these tools to real problems. “Lumpy Capac- divided between the economics and operations research ity Investment and Disinvestment Dynamics,” by Besanko, communities; this far exceeded the number of papers we Doraszelski, Lu, and Satterthwaite, uses computational could put in oneissue.Wehopethat theauthors of papers examples to explore dynamic questions in oligopolistic wecould not includecontinueto developtheirwork in competition. “On Cournot Equilibria in Electricity Trans- computational economics. mission Networks,” by Downward, Zakeri, and Philpott, analyzes Cournot equilibria in electricity transmission net- References works. To overcomethecomplicationof transmission con- Armstrong, C., D. Larcker, C.-L. Su. 2010. Endogenous selection and gestion, models of such competition often resort to bounded moral hazard in compensation contracts. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) rationality assumptions. Here, the authors derive conditions 1090–1106. that ensure the unconstrained Nash–Cournot equilibrium Belloni, A., G. Lopomo, S. Wang. 2010. Multidimensional mechanism design: Finite-dimensional approximations and efficient computation. remains a Nash equilibrium in the presence of (lossless) Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1079–1089. line capacities. “A Single-Settlement, Energy-Only Electric Ben-Tal, A., D. Bertsimas, D. Brown. 2010. A soft robust model for opti- Power Market for Unpredictable and Intermittent Partici- mization under ambiguity. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1220–1234. Besanko, D., U. Doraszelski, L. X. Lu, M. Satterthwaite. 2010. Lumpy pants,” by Pritchard, Zakeri, and Philpott, considers how capacity investment and disinvestment dynamics. Oper. Res. 58(4, uncertainties in electricity demand (variable loads) and sup- part 2 of 2) 1178–1193. ply (renewable energy sources) affect the market for power. Borkovsky, R., U. Doraszelski, Y. Kryukov. 2010. A user’s guide to solv- They propose an alternative scheduling and dispatch mech- ing dynamic stochastic games using the homotopy method. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1116–1132. anism for intermittent generation that is based on a stochas- Breton, M., J. de Frutos. 2010. Option pricing under GARCH processes tic programming model and show the scheme is revenue using PDE methods. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1148–1157. adequate in expectation. Chehrazi, N., T. Weber. 2010. Monotone approximation of decision prob- lems. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1158–1177. Conventional economics is often criticized for assuming Downward, A., G. Zakeri, A. Philpott. 2010. On Cournot equilibria that actors have a clear picture of their problems and an in electricity transmission networks. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) infiniteability to computetheoptimal response.Computa- 1194–1209. tional economicsis a placewherescholarsexploredevia- Hörner, J., D. Rosenberg, E. Solan, N. Vieille. 2010. On a Markov game with one-sided information. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1107–1115. tions from these assumptions. In “A Soft Robust Model for Kubler, F., K. Schmedders. 2010. Tackling multiplicity of equilibria with Optimization Under Ambiguity,” Ben-Tal, Bertsimas, and Gröbner bases. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1037–1050. Brown develop robust optimization methods for agents fac- Pritchard, G., G. Zakeri, A. Philpott. 2010. A single-settlement, energy- only electric power market for unpredictable and intermittent partic- ing risks where the probabilities of various events are not ipants. Oper. Res. 58(4, part 2 of 2) 1210–1219. known well. “Myopic Solutions of Homogeneous Sequen- Schulz, A., N. Uhan. 2010. Sharing supermodular costs. Oper. Res. 58(4, tial Decision Processes,” by Sobel and Wei, explores the
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