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Bayesian Games With a Continuum of States

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  • Ziv Hellman
  • Yehuda (John) Levy

Abstract

Negative results on the the existence of Bayesian equilibria when state spaces have the cardinality of the continuum have been attained in recent years. This has led to the natural question: are there conditions that characterise when Bayesian games over continuum state spaces have measurable Bayesian equilibria? We answer this in the affirmative. Assuming that each type has finite or countable support, measurable Bayesian equilibria may fail to exist if and only if the underlying common knowledge $\sigma$-algebra is non-separable. Furthermore, anomalous examples with continuum state spaces have been presented in the literature in which common priors exist over entire state spaces but not over common knowledge components. There are also spaces over which players can have no disagreement, but when restricting attention to common knowledge components disagreements can exist. We show that when the common knowledge $\sigma$-algebra is separable all these anomalies disappear.

Suggested Citation

  • Ziv Hellman & Yehuda (John) Levy, 2013. "Bayesian Games With a Continuum of States," Discussion Paper Series dp641, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
  • Handle: RePEc:huj:dispap:dp641
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heifetz, Aviad, 2006. "The positive foundation of the common prior assumption," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 105-120, July.
    2. Ziv Hellman, 2012. "A Game with No Bayesian Approximate Equilibria," Discussion Paper Series dp615, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    3. Feinberg, Yossi, 2000. "Characterizing Common Priors in the Form of Posteriors," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 127-179, April.
    4. Paul R. Milgrom & Robert J. Weber, 1985. "Distributional Strategies for Games with Incomplete Information," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 10(4), pages 619-632, November.
    5. , & ,, 2011. "Agreeing to agree," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 6(2), May.
    6. Erik J. Balder, 1988. "Generalized Equilibrium Results for Games with Incomplete Information," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 13(2), pages 265-276, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ziv Hellman & Yehuda John Levy, 2020. "Equilibria Existence in Bayesian Games: Climbing the Countable Borel Equivalence Relation Hierarchy," Working Papers 2020-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    2. Bajoori, Elnaz & Flesch, János & Vermeulen, Dries, 2016. "Behavioral perfect equilibrium in Bayesian games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 78-109.
    3. Wei He & Xiang Sun & Yeneng Sun & Yishu Zeng, 2021. "Characterization of equilibrium existence and purification in general Bayesian games," Papers 2106.08563, arXiv.org.
    4. Seungjin Han, 2021. "Robust Equilibria in General Competing Mechanism Games," Papers 2109.13177, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    5. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau, 2021. "Equilibria in infinite games of incomplete information," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 50(2), pages 311-360, June.
    6. Einy, Ezra & Haimanko, Ori, 2020. "Equilibrium existence in games with a concave Bayesian potential," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 288-294.
    7. Ori Haimanko, 2022. "Equilibrium existence in two-player contests without absolute continuity of information," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 10(1), pages 27-39, May.
    8. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau, 2021. "Perfect equilibria in games of incomplete information," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(4), pages 1591-1648, June.
    9. Hellman, Ziv, 2014. "A game with no Bayesian approximate equilibria," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 138-151.

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    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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