Entropic Risk for Turn-Based Stochastic Games

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Contributors

Abstract

Entropic risk (ERisk) is an established risk measure in finance, quantifying risk by an exponential re-weighting of rewards. We study ERisk for the first time in the context of turn-based stochastic games with the total reward objective. This gives rise to an objective function that demands the control of systems in a risk-averse manner. We show that the resulting games are determined and, in particular, admit optimal memoryless deterministic strategies. This contrasts risk measures that previously have been considered in the special case of Markov decision processes and that require randomization and/or memory. We provide several results on the decidability and the computational complexity of the threshold problem, i.e. whether the optimal value of ERisk exceeds a given threshold. In the most general case, the problem is decidable subject to Shanuel’s conjecture. If all inputs are rational, the resulting threshold problem can be solved using algebraic numbers, leading to decidability via a polynomial-time reduction to the existential theory of the reals. Further restrictions on the encoding of the input allow the solution of the threshold problem in NP ∩ coNP. Finally, an approximation algorithm for the optimal value of ERisk is provided.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication48th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, MFCS 2023
EditorsJérôme Leroux, Sylvain Lombardy, David Peleg
PublisherSchloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik
Pages15:1-15:16
ISBN (electronic)978-3-95977-292-1
Publication statusPublished - 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesLeibniz international proceedings in informatics : LIPIcs
Volume272

Conference

Title48th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science
Abbreviated titleMFCS 2023
Conference number48
Duration28 August - 1 September 2023
CityBordeaux
CountryFrance

External IDs

Scopus 85171459077
ORCID /0000-0002-5321-9343/work/155290607
ORCID /0000-0003-4829-0476/work/165453941

Keywords

Keywords

  • risk-aware verification, stochastic games