On the solution of mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints using nonlinear programming algorithms

Mathematical programming problems with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) are nonlinear programming problems where the constraints have a form that is analogous to first-order optimality conditions of constrained optimization. In these problems all the feasible points are nonregular, in the sense that the gradients of active constraints are always linearly dependent. This and other difficulties associated to the direct application of NLP algorithms to MPEC are discussed it is suggested how to overcome some of them.