Duality for quasi-concave programs with explicit constraints

Abstract

The idea of duality is now well established in the theory of concave programming. The basis of this duality is the concave conjugate transform. This has been exemplified in the development of generalised geometric programming. Much of the current research in duality theory is focused on relaxing the requirement of concavity. Here we develop a duality theory for mathematical programs with a quasi concave objective function and explicit quasi concave constraints. Generalisations of the concave conjugate transform are introduced which pair quasi concave functions as the concave conjugate transform does for concave functions. Optimality conditions are derived relating the primal quasi concave program to its dual. This duality theory was motivated by and has implications in certain problems of mathematical economics. An application to economics is given.