IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2501.17685.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nested Removal of Strictly Dominated Strategies in Infinite Games

Author

Listed:
  • Michele Crescenzi

Abstract

We compare two procedures for the iterated removal of strictly dominated strategies. In the nested procedure, a strategy of a player is removed only if it is dominated by an unremoved strategy. The universal procedure is more comprehensive for it allows the removal of strategies that are dominated by previously removed ones. Outside the class of finite games, the two procedures may lead to different outcomes in that the universal one is always order independent while the other is not. Here we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for the equivalence of the two procedures. The conditions we give are variations of the bounded mechanisms from the literature on full implementation. The two elimination procedures are shown to be equivalent in quasisupermodular games as well as in games with compact strategy spaces and upper semicontinuous payoff functions. We show by example that order independence of the nested procedure is not sufficient for its being equivalent to the universal one.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Crescenzi, 2025. "Nested Removal of Strictly Dominated Strategies in Infinite Games," Papers 2501.17685, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2025.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2501.17685
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2501.17685
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ritzberger, Klaus, 2002. "Foundations of Non-Cooperative Game Theory," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199247868.
    2. Apt Krzysztof R., 2007. "The Many Faces of Rationalizability," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-39, May.
    3. Hsieh, Yue-Da & Qian, Xuewen & Qu, Chen, 2023. "Iterated bounded dominance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    4. Martin Dufwenberg & Mark Stegeman, 2002. "Existence and Uniqueness of Maximal Reductions Under Iterated Strict Dominance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 2007-2023, September.
    5. Milgrom, Paul & Shannon, Chris, 1994. "Monotone Comparative Statics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 62(1), pages 157-180, January.
    6. Michael Trost, 2014. "An Epistemic Rationale For Order Independence," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 1-37.
    7. Lipman Barton L., 1994. "A Note on the Implications of Common Knowledge of Rationality," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 114-129, January.
    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. Kunimoto, Takashi & Serrano, Roberto, 2011. "A new necessary condition for implementation in iteratively undominated strategies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2583-2595.
    10. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    11. Christian Bach & Jérémie Cabessa, 2012. "Common knowledge and limit knowledge," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 423-440, September.
    12. Manili, Julien, 2024. "Order independence for rationalizability," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 152-160.
    13. Krzysztof R. Apt, 2011. "Direct proofs of order independence," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(1), pages 106-115.
    14. Qian, Xuewen & Qu, Chen, 2025. "Pathologies of iterated strict dominance revisited," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    15. Aumann, Robert J., 1995. "Backward induction and common knowledge of rationality," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 6-19.
    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. Hsieh, Yue-Da & Qian, Xuewen & Qu, Chen, 2023. "Iterated bounded dominance," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    2. Xiao Luo & Xuewen Qian & Chen Qu, 2020. "Iterated elimination procedures," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 70(2), pages 437-465, September.
    3. Chen, Yi-Chun & Long, Ngo Van & Luo, Xiao, 2007. "Iterated strict dominance in general games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 299-315, November.
    4. Yi-Chun Chen & Xiao Luo & Chen Qu, 2016. "Rationalizability in general situations," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(1), pages 147-167, January.
    5. Hillas, John & Samet, Dov, 2020. "Dominance rationality: A unified approach," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 189-196.
    6. Jagau, Stephan & Perea, Andrés, 2022. "Common belief in rationality in psychological games," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Jara-Moroni, Pedro, 2012. "Rationalizability in games with a continuum of players," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 668-684.
    8. Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Schipper, Burkhard C., 2012. "Unbeatable imitation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 88-96.
    9. Sobel, Joel, 2019. "Iterated weak dominance and interval-dominance supermodular games," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(1), January.
    10. Echenique, Federico, 2004. "Extensive-form games and strategic complementarities," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 348-364, February.
    11. Manili, Julien, 2024. "Order independence for rationalizability," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 152-160.
    12. Christian Bach & Jérémie Cabessa, 2012. "Common knowledge and limit knowledge," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 423-440, September.
    13. Duersch, Peter & Oechssler, Jörg & Schipper, Burkhard C., 2012. "Unbeatable imitation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 88-96.
    14. Dekel, Eddie & Siniscalchi, Marciano, 2015. "Epistemic Game Theory," Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications,, Elsevier.
    15. Michael Trost, 2012. "An Epistemic Rationale for Order-Independence," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-010, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    16. Saran, Rene, 2016. "Bounded depths of rationality and implementation with complete information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 517-564.
    17. Jaeok Park & Doo Hyung Yun, 2023. "Possibilistic beliefs in strategic games," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 205-228, August.
    18. He, Wei & Sun, Yeneng, 2019. "Pure-strategy equilibria in Bayesian games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 11-49.
    19. Fukuda, Satoshi, 2024. "The existence of universal qualitative belief spaces," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    20. Rabah Amir & Isabel Grilo, 2003. "On strategic complementarity conditions in Bertrand oligopoly," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 22(1), pages 227-232, August.

    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:2501.17685. 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.