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Strategy Choice in the Infinitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

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  • Pedro Dal Bó
  • Guillaume R. Fréchette

Abstract

We use a novel experimental design to reliably elicit subjects' strategies in an infinitely repeated prisoner's dilemma experiment with perfect monitoring. We find that three simple strategies represent the majority of the chosen strategies: Always Defect, Tit-for-Tat, and Grim. In addition, we identify how the strategies systematically vary with the parameters of the game. Finally, we use the elicited strategies to test the ability to recover strategies using statistical methods based on observed round-by-round cooperation choices and find that this can be done fairly well, but only under certain conditions.

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  • Pedro Dal Bó & Guillaume R. Fréchette, 2019. "Strategy Choice in the Infinitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(11), pages 3929-3952, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:109:y:2019:i:11:p:3929-52
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20181480
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    Cited by:

    1. Gallo, Edoardo & Riyanto, Yohanes E. & Roy, Nilanjan & Teh, Tat-How, 2019. "Cooperation in an Uncertain and Dynamic World," MPRA Paper 97878, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Aidin Hajikhameneh & Erik O. Kimbrough & Brock Stoddard, 2023. "Do Individualists and Collectivists Cooperate Differently?," Working Papers 23-11, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    3. V'ictor Gallego & Roi Naveiro & David R'ios Insua & Wolfram Rozas, 2021. "Data sharing games," Papers 2101.10721, arXiv.org.
    4. Masaki Aoyagi & Guillaume Frechette & Sevgi Yuksel, 2021. "Beliefs in Repeated Games," ISER Discussion Paper 1119r, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, revised Nov 2021.
    5. Tamas David-Barrett, 2022. "Clustering Drives Cooperation on Reputation Networks, All Else Fixed," Papers 2203.00372, arXiv.org.
    6. Eugenio Proto & Aldo Rustichini & Andis Sofianos, 2020. "Intelligence, Errors and Strategic Choices in the Repeated Prisoners Dilemma," Working Papers 2020_07, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    7. Marco Lambrecht & Eugenio Proto & Aldo Rustichini & Andis Sofianos, 2021. "Intelligence Disclosure and Cooperation in Repeated Interactions," CESifo Working Paper Series 9372, CESifo.
    8. Normann, Hans-Theo & Sternberg, Martin, 2022. "Human-algorithm interaction: Algorithmic pricing in hybrid laboratory markets," DICE Discussion Papers 392, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    9. Wu, Steven Y., 2021. "Determinants of Relational Contract Performance: Experimental Evidence," 2021 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 3-5, 2021, San Diego, California 308455, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    10. Jörg Spiller & Friedel Bolle, 2013. "Inter-Generational Thoughtfulness in a Dynamic Public Good Experiment," Discussion Paper Series RECAP15 008, RECAP15, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder).
    11. Dreber, Anna & Fudenberg, Drew & Rand, David G., 2014. "Who cooperates in repeated games: The role of altruism, inequity aversion, and demographics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 41-55.
    12. Bigoni, Maria & Casari, Marco & Salvanti, Andrea & Skrzypacz, Andrzej & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2022. "It’s Payback Time: New Insights on Cooperation in the Repeated Prisoners’ Dilemma," IZA Discussion Papers 15023, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Normann, Hans-Theo & Sternberg, Martin, 2023. "Human-algorithm interaction: Algorithmic pricing in hybrid laboratory markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    14. Masaki Aoyagi & V. Bhaskar & Guillaume R. Fréchette, 2019. "The Impact of Monitoring in Infinitely Repeated Games: Perfect, Public, and Private," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 1-43, February.
    15. Masaki Aoyagi & Guillaume Frechette & Sevgi Yuksel, 2021. "Beliefs in Repeated Games," ISER Discussion Paper 1119rr, Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, revised May 2022.
    16. DeAngelo, Gregory & McCannon, Bryan C., 2017. "Theory of Mind predicts cooperative behavior," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1-4.
    17. Lijia Tan & Lijia Wei, 2014. "Special Section: Experiments on Learning, Methods, and Voting," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 313-331, August.
    18. Miriam Al Lily, 2023. "Establishing human connections: experimental evidence from the helping game," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 52(3), pages 805-832, September.
    19. Heller, Yuval & Tubul, Itay, 2023. "Strategies in the repeated prisoner’s dilemma: A cluster analysis," MPRA Paper 117444, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Kamei, Kenju, 2015. "Endogenous Reputation Formation: Cooperation and Identity under the Shadow of the Future," MPRA Paper 61657, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Ding, Zhen-Wei & Zheng, Guo-Zhong & Cai, Chao-Ran & Cai, Wei-Ran & Chen, Li & Zhang, Ji-Qiang & Wang, Xu-Ming, 2023. "Emergence of cooperation in two-agent repeated games with reinforcement learning," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 175(P1).
    22. Smyth, Andrew & Rodet, Cortney S., 2023. "Cooperation in indefinite games: Evidence from red queen games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 230-257.
    23. Alan Hammond, 2022. "On the Trail of Lost Pennies: player-funded tug-of-war on the integers," Papers 2209.07451, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2023.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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