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On equilibrium in pure strategies in games with many players

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  • Edward Cartwright
  • Myrna Wooders

Abstract

Treating games of incomplete information with countable sets of actions and types and finite but large player sets we demonstrate that for every mixed strategy profile there is a pure strategy profile that is 'epsilon-equivalent'. Our framework introduces and exploits a distinction between crowding attributes of players (their external effects on others) and their taste attributes (their payoff functions and any other attributes that are not directly relevant to other players). The main assumption is a 'large game' property, dictating that the actions of relatively small subsets of players cannot have large effects on the payoffs of others Since it is well known that, even allowing mixed strategies, with a countable set of actions a Nash equilibrium may not exist, we provide an existence of equilibrium theorem. The proof of existence relies on a relationship between the 'better reply security' property of Reny (1999) and a stronger version of the large game property. Our purification theorem are based on a new mathematical result, of independent interest, applicable to countable strategy spaces.
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(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

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  • Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2009. "On equilibrium in pure strategies in games with many players," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 38(1), pages 137-153, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jogath:v:38:y:2009:i:1:p:137-153
    DOI: 10.1007/s00182-008-0150-5
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    1. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2009. "On equilibrium in pure strategies in games with many players," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 38(1), pages 137-153, March.
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    5. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2009. "On purification of equilibrium in Bayesian games and expost Nash equilibrium," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 38(1), pages 127-136, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2009. "On purification of equilibrium in Bayesian games and expost Nash equilibrium," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 38(1), pages 127-136, March.
    2. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2009. "On equilibrium in pure strategies in games with many players," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 38(1), pages 137-153, March.
    3. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2003. "Conformity and Bounded Rationality in Games with Many Players," Working Papers 2003.123, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    4. Guilherme Carmona, 2004. "On the Existence of Pure Strategy Nash Equilibria in Large Games," Game Theory and Information 0412008, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Carmona, Guilherme, 2004. "On the purification of Nash equilibria of large games," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 215-219, November.
    6. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2014. "Correlated Equilibrium, Conformity, and Stereotyping in Social Groups," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(5), pages 743-766, October.
    7. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2014. "Correlated Equilibrium, Conformity, and Stereotyping in Social Groups," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(5), pages 743-766, October.
    8. Yang, Jian, 2022. "A Bayesian nonatomic game and its applicability to finite-player situations," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    9. Edward Cartwright & Myrna Wooders, 2008. "Behavioral Properties of Correlated Equilibrium; Social Group Structures with Conformity and Stereotyping," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 0814, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    10. Gradwohl, Ronen & Reingold, Omer, 2010. "Partial exposure in large games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 602-613, March.
    11. Azrieli, Yaron, 2009. "Categorizing others in a large game," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 351-362, November.
    12. Yaron Azrieli & Eran Shmaya, 2013. "Lipschitz Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 38(2), pages 350-357, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bayesian equilibrium; Purification; Large games; Semi-anonymity; Ex-post stability; Shapley–Folkman Theorem; Countable strategy space; C72;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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