Chapter 2: prisoners dilemma and other representations of strategic situations

Repetition - elements of a game

• Players

• Actions (and strategies)

• Payoffs

• Information

Different forms of presenting a game

• Normal/strategic form (table)

• Extensive form (game tree)

Static games of imperfect information

—> dash line: individuals make decisions simultaneously - don’t know the other persons decision

Dynamic games of perfect information

—> no dash line: individual B knows what individual A has decided

Dynamic games of perfect information

When individual B is asked to make a decision, he has no knowledge of what individual A has decided —> dash line?

3 types of games

1. Cooperation game

2. Coordination game

3. Contribution game

Cooperation game

Prisoners dilemma - players are able to enter into and respect binding commitments (and form coalitions)

Coordination game

war of the sexes

contribution game

chicken game, hawk/dove. The result of the interaction will be a benefit for one of the subjects, and a loss for the other subject - otherwise both will be significantly worse off