Gap functions and global error bounds for set-valued variational inequalities

The set-valued variational inequality problem is very useful in economics theory and nonsmooth optimization. In this paper, we introduce some gap functions for set-valued variational inequality problems under suitable assumptions. By using these gap functions we derive global error bounds for the solution of the set-valued variational inequality problems. Our results not only generalize the previously known results for classical variational inequalities from single-valued case to set-valued, but also present a way to constructgap functions and derive global error bounds forset-valued variational inequality problems. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.