A Representation and Economic Interpretation of a Two-Level Programming Problem

This paper first presents a formulation for a class of hierarchial problems that show a two-stage decision making process; this formulation is termed multilevel programming and could be defined, in general, as a mathematical programming problem (master) containing other multilevel programs in the constraints (subproblems). A two-level problem is analyzed in detail, and we develop a solution procedure that replaces the subproblem by its Kuhn-Tucker conditions and then further transforms it into a mixed integer quadratic programming problem by exploiting the disjunctive nature of the complementary slackness conditions. An example problem is solved and the economic implications of the formulation and its solution are reviewed. 1981 Operational Research Society Ltd.

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