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How Robust is the Folk Theorem?

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  • Johannes Hörner
  • Wojciech Olszewski

Abstract

The folk theorem of repeated games has established that cooperative behavior can be sustained as an equilibrium in repeated settings. Early papers on private monitoring and a recent paper of Cole and Kocherlakota (Games and Economic Behavior, 53 [2005], 59–72) challenge the robustness of this result by providing examples in which cooperation breaks down when players observe only imperfect private signals about other players' actions, or when attention is restricted to strategies with finite memory. This paper shows that Cole and Kocherlakota's result is an artefact of a further restriction that they impose. We prove that the folk theorem with imperfect public monitoring holds with strategies with finite memory. As a corollary, we establish that the folk theorem extends to environments in which monitoring is close to public, yet private.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Hörner & Wojciech Olszewski, 2009. "How Robust is the Folk Theorem?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1773-1814.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:124:y:2009:i:4:p:1773-1814.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1162/qjec.2009.124.4.1773
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    Cited by:

    1. Sugaya, Takuo & Yamamoto, Yuichi, 2020. "Common learning and cooperation in repeated games," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 15(3), July.
    2. Barlo, Mehmet & Carmona, Guilherme & Sabourian, Hamid, 2016. "Bounded memory Folk Theorem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 728-774.
    3. Laclau, Marie, 2012. "A folk theorem for repeated games played on a network," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 711-737.
    4. Łukasz Balbus & Kevin Reffett & Łukasz Woźny, 2013. "Markov Stationary Equilibria in Stochastic Supermodular Games with Imperfect Private and Public Information," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 187-206, June.
    5. Fudenberg, Drew & Yamamoto, Yuichi, 2011. "The folk theorem for irreducible stochastic games with imperfect public monitoring," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(4), pages 1664-1683, July.
    6. Can, Burak, 2014. "Weighted distances between preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 109-115.
    7. Sugaya, Takuo & Takahashi, Satoru, 2013. "Coordination failure in repeated games with private monitoring," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(5), pages 1891-1928.
    8. Phelan, Christopher & Skrzypacz, Andrzej, 2015. "Recall and private monitoring," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 162-170.
    9. Fudenberg, Drew & Ishii, Yuhta & Kominers, Scott Duke, 2014. "Delayed-response strategies in repeated games with observation lags," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 487-514.
    10. Yuichi Yamamoto, 2012. "Individual Learning and Cooperation in Noisy Repeated Games," PIER Working Paper Archive 12-044, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    11. Heller, Yuval, 2017. "Instability of belief-free equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 261-286.
    12. Hino, Yoshifumi, 2018. "A folk theorem in infinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma with small observation cost," MPRA Paper 90381, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Fudenberg, Drew & Olszewski, Wojciech, 2011. "Repeated games with asynchronous monitoring of an imperfect signal," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 86-99, May.
    14. Mailath, George J. & Olszewski, Wojciech, 2011. "Folk theorems with bounded recall under (almost) perfect monitoring," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 174-192, January.
    15. Wei He, 2022. "Discontinuous stochastic games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(4), pages 827-858, June.
    16. Hino, Yoshifumi, 2018. "A folk theorem in infinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma with small observation cost," MPRA Paper 96010, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 13 Sep 2019.
    17. Doraszelski, Ulrich & Escobar, Juan F., 2012. "Restricted feedback in long term relationships," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 142-161.
    18. Yuichi Yamamoto, 2013. "Individual Learning and Cooperation in Noisy Repeated Games," PIER Working Paper Archive 13-038, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    19. Takuo Sugaya & Yuichi Yamamoto, 2019. "Common Learning and Cooperation in Repeated Games," PIER Working Paper Archive 19-008, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

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