IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2412.18449.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Robust Equilibria in Generic Extensive form Games

Author

Listed:
  • Lucas Pahl
  • Carlos Pimienta

Abstract

We prove the 2-player, generic extensive-form case of the conjecture of Govindan and Wilson (1997a,b) and Hauk and Hurkens (2002) stating that an equilibrium component is essential in every equivalent game if and only if the index of the component is nonzero. This provides an index-theoretic characterization of the concept of hyperstable components of equilibria in generic extensive-form games, first formulated by Kohlberg and Mertens (1986). We also illustrate how to compute hyperstable equilibria in multiple economically relevant examples and show how the predictions of hyperstability compare with other solution concepts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucas Pahl & Carlos Pimienta, 2024. "Robust Equilibria in Generic Extensive form Games," Papers 2412.18449, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2025.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2412.18449
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.18449
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew McLennan, 2018. "Advanced Fixed Point Theory for Economics," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-981-13-0710-2, December.
    2. van Damme, Eric, 1989. "Stable equilibria and forward induction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 476-496, August.
    3. Govindan, Srihari & Laraki, Rida & Pahl, Lucas, 2023. "On sustainable equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    4. Hauk, Esther & Hurkens, Sjaak, 2002. "On Forward Induction and Evolutionary and Strategic Stability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 66-90, September.
    5. DeMichelis, Stefano & Germano, Fabrizio, 2000. "On the Indices of Zeros of Nash Fields," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 192-217, October.
    6. Pahl, Lucas, 2023. "Polytope-form games and index/degree theories for extensive-form games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 444-471.
    7. Osborne, Martin J., 1990. "Signaling, forward induction, and stability in finitely repeated games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 22-36, February.
    8. Martin J. Osborne & Ariel Rubinstein, 1994. "A Course in Game Theory," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262650401, December.
    9. In-Koo Cho & David M. Kreps, 1987. "Signaling Games and Stable Equilibria," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 179-221.
    10. Robert Wilson & Srihari Govindan, 1997. "Uniqueness of the index for Nash equilibria of two-player games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 10(3), pages 541-549.
    11. Lucas Pahl, 2022. "Polytope-form games and Index/Degree Theories for Extensive-form games," Papers 2201.02098, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    12. Ritzberger, Klaus, 1994. "The Theory of Normal Form Games form the Differentiable Viewpoint," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 23(3), pages 207-236.
    13. Mailath, George J. & Samuelson, Larry, 2006. "Repeated Games and Reputations: Long-Run Relationships," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195300796, Decembrie.
    14. Demichelis, Stefano & Ritzberger, Klaus, 2003. "From evolutionary to strategic stability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 51-75, November.
    15. Kohlberg, Elon & Mertens, Jean-Francois, 1986. "On the Strategic Stability of Equilibria," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1003-1037, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Takahashi, Satoru & Tercieux, Olivier, 2020. "Robust equilibrium outcomes in sequential games under almost common certainty of payoffs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    2. Demichelis, Stefano & Ritzberger, Klaus, 2003. "From evolutionary to strategic stability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 51-75, November.
    3. Govindan, Srihari & Laraki, Rida & Pahl, Lucas, 2023. "On sustainable equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    4. Pahl, Lucas, 2023. "Polytope-form games and index/degree theories for extensive-form games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 444-471.
    5. Demichelis, Stefano & Germano, Fabrizio, 2002. "On (un)knots and dynamics in games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 46-60, October.
    6. Stefano Demichelis & Klaus Ritzberger & Jeroen M. Swinkels, 2004. "The simple geometry of perfect information games," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 32(3), pages 315-338, June.
    7. Lucas Pahl, 2022. "Polytope-form games and Index/Degree Theories for Extensive-form games," Papers 2201.02098, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    8. Norman, Thomas W.L., 2018. "Inefficient stage Nash is not stable," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 275-293.
    9. De Sinopoli, Francesco, 2004. "A note on forward induction in a model of representative democracy," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 41-54, January.
    10. Hauk, Esther & Hurkens, Sjaak, 2002. "On Forward Induction and Evolutionary and Strategic Stability," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 66-90, September.
    11. Reuben Bearman, 2023. "Signaling Games with Costly Monitoring," Papers 2302.01116, arXiv.org.
    12. Catonini, Emiliano, 2020. "On non-monotonic strategic reasoning," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 209-224.
    13. Peter Wikman, 2022. "Nash blocks," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 51(1), pages 29-51, March.
    14. Maarten C.W. Janssen, 2003. "Auctions as Collusion Devices," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 03-017/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Xiao Luo & Xuewen Qian & Yang Sun, 2021. "The algebraic geometry of perfect and sequential equilibrium: an extension," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(2), pages 579-601, March.
    16. Ben-Porath, Elchanan & Dekel, Eddie, 1992. "Signaling future actions and the potential for sacrifice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 36-51.
    17. Dieter Balkenborg & Stefano Demichelis & Dries Vermeulen, 2010. "Where strategic and evolutionary stability depart - a study of minimal diversity games," Discussion Papers 1001, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    18. Janssen, Maarten C.W., 2006. "Auctions as coordination devices," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 517-532, April.
    19. Dieter Balkenborg & Dries Vermeulen, 2016. "Where Strategic and Evolutionary Stability Depart—A Study of Minimal Diversity Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 41(1), pages 278-292, February.
    20. Catonini, Emiliano, 2019. "Rationalizability and epistemic priority orderings," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 101-117.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:2412.18449. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.