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On the Existence of Mixed Strategy Nash equilibria

Author

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  • Pavlo Prokopovych

    (Kyiv School of Economics and Kyiv Economics Institute)

  • Nicholas C.Yannelis

    (Department of Economics, Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa)

Abstract

The focus of this paper is on developing geometric sufficient conditions for the existence of a mixed strategy Nash equilibrium for both diagonally transfer continuous and better-reply secure games. First, we show that employing the concept of diagonal transfer continuity in place of better-reply security might be advantageous when the existence of a mixed strategy Nash equilibrium is concerned. Then, we study equilibrium existence in better-reply secure games possessing a payoff secure mixed extension. With the aid of an example we show that such games need not have mixed strategy Nash equilibria. We provide some easily verifiable conditions for the mixed extension of a two-person game that is reciprocally upper semicontinuous and uniformly payoff secure to be better-reply secure.

Suggested Citation

  • Pavlo Prokopovych & Nicholas C.Yannelis, 2013. "On the Existence of Mixed Strategy Nash equilibria," Discussion Papers 50, Kyiv School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:kse:dpaper:50
    Note: Submitted to Journal of Mathematical Economics
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    Cited by:

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    2. David K. Levine & Andrea Mattozzi, 2022. "Success in contests," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(2), pages 595-624, April.
    3. Pavlo Prokopovych, 2016. "Majorized correspondences and equilibrium existence in discontinuous games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(3), pages 541-552, March.
    4. Allison, Blake A. & Bagh, Adib & Lepore, Jason J., 2018. "Sufficient conditions for weak reciprocal upper semi-continuity in mixed extensions of games," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 99-107.
    5. Bettina Klose & Dan Kovenock, 2015. "The all-pay auction with complete information and identity-dependent externalities," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 59(1), pages 1-19, May.
    6. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Richard P. McLean, 2018. "On the Existence of Nash Equilibrium in Bayesian Games," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 100-129, February.
    7. J. E. Abdou & E. Safatly & B. Nakhle & A. El Khoury, 2017. "High-Dimensional Nash Equilibria Problems and Tensors Applications," International Game Theory Review (IGTR), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(03), pages 1-25, September.
    8. Tian, Guoqiang, 2015. "On the existence of equilibria in games with arbitrary strategy spaces and preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 9-16.
    9. Prokopovych, Pavlo & Yannelis, Nicholas C., 2017. "On strategic complementarities in discontinuous games with totally ordered strategies," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 147-153.
    10. Guilherme Carmona, 2016. "Reducible equilibrium properties: comments on recent existence results," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(3), pages 431-455, March.
    11. He, Wei & Yannelis, Nicholas C., 2016. "Existence of equilibria in discontinuous Bayesian games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 181-194.
    12. M. Ali Khan & Metin Uyanik, 2021. "The Yannelis–Prabhakar theorem on upper semi-continuous selections in paracompact spaces: extensions and applications," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(3), pages 799-840, April.
    13. Rabia Nessah & Guoqiang Tian, 2016. "On the existence of Nash equilibrium in discontinuous games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 61(3), pages 515-540, March.
    14. Oriol Carbonell-Nicolau & Richard P. McLean, 2019. "Nash and Bayes–Nash equilibria in strategic-form games with intransitivities," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 68(4), pages 935-965, November.
    15. He, Wei & Yannelis, Nicholas C., 2015. "Discontinuous games with asymmetric information: An extension of Reny's existence theorem," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 26-35.
    16. Wei He, 2022. "Discontinuous stochastic games," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 73(4), pages 827-858, June.
    17. Shiran Rachmilevitch, 2023. "Symmetric games with only asymmetric equilibria: examples with continuous payoff functions," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 11(1), pages 65-68, April.
    18. Prokopovych, Pavlo & Yannelis, Nicholas C., 2019. "On monotone approximate and exact equilibria of an asymmetric first-price auction with affiliated private information," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    19. Ori Haimanko, 2021. "Bayesian Nash equilibrium existence in (almost continuous) contests," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(3), pages 1231-1258, April.
    20. Olszewski, Wojciech & Siegel, Ron, 2023. "Equilibrium existence in games with ties," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 18(2), May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Discontinuous game; Diagonally transfer continuous game; Better-reply secure game; Mixed strategy equilibrium; Transfer lower semicontinuity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C65 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Miscellaneous Mathematical Tools
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games

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