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Commitment games

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  • Renou, Ludovic

Abstract

This paper explores how the ability to commit in games affect equilibrium payoffs. More precisely, we consider two-stage games, called commitment games, in which players can commit to some of their strategies in the first stage, and play the game induced by their commitment in the second stage. We completely characterize equilibrium payoffs of commitment games. Among others, we show that the power to commit in finitely repeated games as, for instance, finitely repeated prisoner's dilemma games, can lead to efficiency even though the constituent game does not satisfy the assumptions of Benoît and Krishna [1987. Nash equilibria of finitely repeated games. Int. J. Game Theory 16, 197-204].

Suggested Citation

  • Renou, Ludovic, 2009. "Commitment games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 488-505, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:gamebe:v:66:y:2009:i:1:p:488-505
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    2. Dutta, Rohan & Ishii, Ryosuke, 2016. "Dynamic commitment games, efficiency and coordination," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 699-727.
    3. Koessler, Frédéric & Lambert-Mogiliansky, Ariane, 2013. "Committing to transparency to resist corruption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(1), pages 117-126.
    4. Bade, Sophie & Haeringer, Guillaume & Renou, Ludovic, 2009. "Bilateral commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(4), pages 1817-1831, July.
    5. Halpern, Joe & Heller, Yuval & Winter, Eyal, 2022. "The Benefits of Coarse Preferences," MPRA Paper 111670, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, 2016. "Implementing Tax Coordination and Harmonization through Voluntary Commitment," Working Papers halshs-01332058, HAL.
    7. Yuval Heller & Eyal Winter, 2016. "Rule Rationality," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 57(3), pages 997-1026, August.
    8. Arieli, Itai & Babichenko, Yakov & Tennenholtz, Moshe, 2017. "Sequential commitment games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 297-315.
    9. Miyahara, Yasuyuki & Sekiguchi, Tadashi, 2013. "Finitely repeated games with monitoring options," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(5), pages 1929-1952.
    10. James W. Bono & David H. Wolpert, 2014. "Game Mining: How to Make Money from those about to Play a Game," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Entangled Political Economy, volume 18, pages 179-211, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    11. Ignacio García-Jurado & Natividad Llorca & Ana Meca & Manuel Pulido & Joaquín Sánchez-Soriano, 2009. "Strategic absentmindedness in finitely repeated games," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 17(1), pages 85-95, July.
    12. Arina Nikandrova, 2013. "Repeated Play of Families of Games by Resource-Constrained Players," Games, MDPI, vol. 4(3), pages 1-8, July.
    13. Tomala, Tristan & Koessler, Frederic & Laclau, Marie, 2018. "Interactive Information Design," HEC Research Papers Series 1260, HEC Paris, revised 02 May 2018.
    14. Miettinen, Topi & Perea, Andrés, 2015. "Commitment in alternating offers bargaining," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 12-18.
    15. James W. Bono & David H. Wolpert, 2009. "Game Mining: How to Make Money from those about to Play a Game," Working Papers 2009-10, American University, Department of Economics.
    16. Babajanyan, S.G. & Melkikh, A.V. & Allahverdyan, A.E., 2020. "Leadership scenarios in prisoner’s dilemma game," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 545(C).
    17. Rohan Dutta & Ryosuke Ishii, 2013. "Coordinating by Not Committing : Efficiency as the Unique Outcome," Cahiers de recherche 10-2013, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en économie quantitative, CIREQ.
    18. Pei, Harry Di, 2016. "When does restricting your opponent's freedom hurt you?," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 234-239.

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