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Equilibrium Play and Best Response to (Stated) Beliefs in Constant Sum Games

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  • Pedro Rey-Biel

Abstract

We report experimental results on one-shot two person 3x3 constant sum games played by non-economists without previous experience in the laboratory. Although strategically our games are very similar to previous experiments in which game theory predictions fail dramatically, 80% of actions taken in our ex- periment coincided with the prediction of the unique Nash equilibrium in pure strategies and 73% of actions were best responses to elicited beliefs. We argue how social preferences, presentation effects and belief elicitation procedures may influence how subjects play in simple but non trivial games and explain the diferences we observe with respect to previous work.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Rey-Biel, 2007. "Equilibrium Play and Best Response to (Stated) Beliefs in Constant Sum Games," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 676.07, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
  • Handle: RePEc:aub:autbar:676.07
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    Cited by:

    1. David Danz & Dietmar Fehr & Dorothea Kübler, 2012. "Information and beliefs in a repeated normal-form game," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 15(4), pages 622-640, December.
    2. Gallice, Andrea, 2007. "Best Responding to What? A Behavioral Approach to One Shot Play in 2x2 Games," Discussion Papers in Economics 1365, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    3. ATTANASI Giuseppe & NAGEL Rosemarie, 2008. "A Survey of Psychological Games: Theoretical Findings and Experimental Evidence," LERNA Working Papers 08.07.251, LERNA, University of Toulouse.
    4. Gallice, Andrea, 2006. "Predicting one Shot Play in 2x2 Games Using Beliefs Based on Minimax Regret," Economic Theory and Applications Working Papers 12182, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    5. Spiliopoulos, Leonidas, 2009. "Neural networks as a learning paradigm for general normal form games," MPRA Paper 16765, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Experiments; Constant Sum Games; Stated Beliefs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty

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