2,960 research outputs found
On the Approximation Performance of Fictitious Play in Finite Games
We study the performance of Fictitious Play, when used as a heuristic for
finding an approximate Nash equilibrium of a 2-player game. We exhibit a class
of 2-player games having payoffs in the range [0,1] that show that Fictitious
Play fails to find a solution having an additive approximation guarantee
significantly better than 1/2. Our construction shows that for n times n games,
in the worst case both players may perpetually have mixed strategies whose
payoffs fall short of the best response by an additive quantity 1/2 -
O(1/n^(1-delta)) for arbitrarily small delta. We also show an essentially
matching upper bound of 1/2 - O(1/n)
Subgame perfect implementation with almost perfect information and the hold-up problem
The foundations of incomplete contracts have been questioned using or extending the subgame perfect implementation approach of Moore and Repullo (1988). We consider the robustness of subgame perfect implementation to the introduction of small amounts of asymmetric information. We show that Moore- Repullo mechanisms may not yield (even approximately) truthful revelation in pure or totally mixed
strategies as the amount of asymmetric information goes to zero. Moreover, we argue that a wide class of extensive-form mechanisms are subject to this fragility
Diversity and Adaptation in Large Population Games
We consider a version of large population games whose players compete for
resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The system efficiency is
measured by the variance of the decisions. In the regime where the system can
be plagued by the maladaptive behavior of the players, we find that diversity
among the players improves the system efficiency, though it slows the
convergence to the steady state. Diversity causes a mild spread of resources at
the transient state, but reduces the uneven distribution of resources in the
steady state.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
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