IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/acsxxx/v21y2018i01ns0219525917500096.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Periodic Strategies: A New Solution Concept And An Algorithm For Nontrivial Strategic Form Games

Author

Listed:
  • V. K. OIKONOMOU

    (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Inselstrasse 22, 04103 Leipzig, Germany)

  • J. JOST

    (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Inselstrasse 22, 04103 Leipzig, Germany†Santa Fe Institute, New Mexico, USA)

Abstract

We introduce a new solution concept, called periodicity, for selecting optimal strategies in strategic form games. This periodicity solution concept yields new insight into nontrivial games. In mixed strategy strategic form games, periodic solutions yield values for the utility function of each player that are equal to the Nash equilibrium ones. In contrast to the Nash strategies, here the payoffs of each player are robust against what the opponent plays. Sometimes, periodicity strategies yield higher utilities, and sometimes the Nash strategies do, but often the utilities of these two strategies coincide. We formally define and study periodic strategies in two player perfect information strategic form games with pure strategies and we prove that every nontrivial finite game has at least one periodic strategy, with nontrivial meaning nondegenerate payoffs. In some classes of games where mixed strategies are used, we identify quantitative features. Particularly interesting are the implications for collective action games, since there the collective action strategy can be incorporated in a purely noncooperative context. Moreover, we address the periodicity issue when the players have a continuum set of strategies available.

Suggested Citation

  • V. K. Oikonomou & J. Jost, 2018. "Periodic Strategies: A New Solution Concept And An Algorithm For Nontrivial Strategic Form Games," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(01), pages 1-26, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:21:y:2018:i:01:n:s0219525917500096
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219525917500096
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525917500096
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0219525917500096?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pfeifer, Antun & Feijoo, Felipe & Duić, Neven, 2023. "Fast energy transition as a best strategy for all? The nash equilibrium of long-term energy planning strategies in coupled power markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 284(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:21:y:2018:i:01:n:s0219525917500096. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/acs/acs.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.