Dynamic Game Theory in Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Through climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and environmental inequality, the ongoing global sustainability crises have necessitated the critical need for strategic decision-making under dynamic, interdependent, and often conflicting objectives. This Special Issue invites contributions that encourage application and advancement of the dynamic game theory in order to address  complex sustainability challenges. Dynamic games provide a robust analytical framework for modeling strategic interactions over time among multiple agents, such as firms, governments, regulators, or communities, whose decisions influence environmental and economic outcomes. Researchers can explore equilibrium behaviors, optimal policies, cooperation mechanisms, and policy interventions in multi-agent sustainability contexts by utilizing tools such as differential games, stochastic games, and evolutionary dynamics.

In recent years, the literature on game theory has seen an emergence of dynamic game models in key areas such as green technology adoption, international climate policy coordination, common-pool resource management, optimal carbon pricing and emission regulation, renewable energy competition, and greenwashing dynamics. These contributions not only enrich the theoretical foundations of sustainable decision-making but also offer actionable insights for policymakers and industries striving to achieve long-term environmental and economic balance. This Special Issue invites cross-disciplinary research on sustainability in economics and other management areas. We particularly welcome contributions regarding the development of novel dynamic game models or innovative applications for real-world sustainability problems.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the follwoing:

• Differential games for environmental regulation and resource management;
• Dynamic games in climate policy design and carbon market strategies;
• Green supply chain competition and cooperation models;
• Evolutionary and stochastic game models in biodiversity and conservation economics;
• Asymmetric information and signaling in greenwashing or brown washing;
• Optimal control and HJB solutions in sustainability contexts;
• Sustainability games with random shocks, tipping points, or regime-switching;
• Public–private partnerships and incentive design for sustainability;
• Collusion and competition under environmental constraints;
• Computational and numerical methods for solving sustainability-focused dynamic games;
• Applications in energy transitions, water management, waste minimization, and ESG strategy;
• Transboundary pollution control games;
• Dynamic cooperation in international environmental agreements.

The primary goal of this Special Issue is to advance the theory and application of dynamic games in sustainability science and practice. We welcome both methodological innovations and empirically grounded studies. Submissions that identify emerging research directions, propose interdisciplinary approaches, and present policy-relevant insights are especially encouraged. We look forward to your contributions that shape the future of sustainability through the lens of dynamic strategic interactions.

Dr. Subhadip Ghosh
Dr. Arka Mukherjee
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Games is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• nash equilibrium in dynamic settings
• stackelberg game
• differential games
• evolutionary game theory
• climate change mitigation
• common-pool resource management
• intergenerational equity
• transboundary pollution
• mechanism design for sustainability
• renewable resource dynamics
• environmental regulation
• feedback strategies
• public goods games