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The Prevalence of Free Riding

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  • Per Molander

    (Ministry of Finance, Sweden)

Abstract

The prospects for the spontaneous emergence of cooperation in n -person prisoner's dilemmas are studied within an evolutionary framework. Both purely cooperative regimes and states representing a mix of conditionally cooperative with noncooperative strategies turn out to be possible outcomes of the selection process, but only the latter correspond to evolutionarily stable strategies. Two-person games differ qualitatively from games with three or more players in that they are more propitious to cooperative regimes. Spontaneous cooperation in general collective-action games therefore appears less likely than much of the recent literature seems to indicate.

Suggested Citation

  • Per Molander, 1992. "The Prevalence of Free Riding," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(4), pages 756-771, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:36:y:1992:i:4:p:756-771
    DOI: 10.1177/0022002792036004007
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Friedman, Daniel, 1991. "Evolutionary Games in Economics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 637-666, May.
    2. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1986. "Finite automata play the repeated prisoner's dilemma," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 83-96, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. C. Manuel & J. Tejada, 1995. "Reciprocal cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma repeated with random horizon," TOP: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 3(1), pages 97-116, June.
    2. Suzuki, Shinsuke & Akiyama, Eizo, 2008. "Evolutionary stability of first-order-information indirect reciprocity in sizable groups," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 426-436.
    3. Jason Briggeman, 2009. "Governance as a strategy in state-of-nature games," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 481-491, December.

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