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Rational Play in Extensive-Form Games

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  • Giacomo Bonanno

    (Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8578, USA)

Abstract

We argue in favor of a departure from the equilibrium approach in game theory towards the less ambitious goal of describing only the actual behavior of rational players. The notions of Nash equilibrium and its refinements require a specification of the players’ choices and beliefs not only along the equilibrium play but also at counterfactual histories. We discuss an alternative—counterfactual-free—approach that focuses on choices and beliefs along the actual play, while being silent on choices and beliefs at unreached histories. Such an approach was introduced in an earlier paper that considered only perfect-information games. Here we extend the analysis to general extensive-form games (allowing for imperfect information) and put forward a behavioral notion of self-confirming play, which is close in spirit to the literature on self-confirming equilibrium. We also extend, to general extensive-form games, the characterization of rational play that is compatible with pure-strategy Nash equilibrium.

Suggested Citation

  • Giacomo Bonanno, 2022. "Rational Play in Extensive-Form Games," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-20, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jgames:v:13:y:2022:i:6:p:72-:d:958106
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mehmet S. Ismail, 2023. "Human and Machine Intelligence in n-Person Games with Partial Knowledge: Theory and Computation," Papers 2302.13937, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.

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