Measure-Valued Solutions to a Harvesting Game with Several Players

Abstract

We consider Nash equilibrium solutions to a harvesting game in one-space dimension. At the equilibrium configuration, the population density is described by a second-order O.D.E. accounting for diffusion, reproduction, and harvesting. The optimization problem corresponds to a cost functional having sublinear growth, and the solutions in general can be found only within a space of measures. In this chapter, we derive necessary conditions for optimality, and provide an example where the optimal harvesting rate is indeed measure valued. We then consider the case of many players, each with the same payoff. As the number of players approaches infinity, we show that the population density approaches a well-defined limit, characterized as the solution of a variational inequality. In the last section, we consider the problem of optimally designing a marine park, where no harvesting is allowed, so that the total catch is maximized.