Markov decision processes and stochastic games with total effective payoff

Abstract

We consider finite Markov decision processes (MDPs) with undiscounted total effective payoff. We show that there exist uniformly optimal pure stationary strategies that can be computed by solving a polynomial number of linear programs. We apply this result to two-player zero-sum stochastic games with perfect information and undiscounted total effective payoff, and derive the existence of a saddle point in uniformly optimal pure stationary strategies.