Informational Constraints and the Overlapping Generations Model: Folk and Anti-Folk Theorems

S-Tier
Journal: Review of Economic Studies
Year: 1998
Volume: 65
Issue: 1
Pages: 135-149

Score contribution per author:

8.043 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

This paper analyses the sustainability of inter-generational transfers in Samuelson's consumption-loan model when agents are imperfectly informed about past events. We find that with mild informational constraints, transfers cannot be supported by pure-strategy equilibria. Mixed strategies allow transfers to be sustained even if agents have little information, so that a version of the Folk theorem holds. However, these equilibria are not robust. If each agent's utility function is subjected to a small random perturbation as in Harsanyi (1973), these mixed strategy equilibria unravel, and only the zero-transfer allocation survives as the unique rationalizable outcome. This result is an example of mixed strategy equilibrium of an extensive form game which cannot be purified.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:restud:v:65:y:1998:i:1:p:135-149.
Journal Field
General
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-24