Voluntarily Separable Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

S-Tier
Journal: Review of Economic Studies
Year: 2009
Volume: 76
Issue: 3
Pages: 993-1021

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

Ordinary repeated games do not apply to real societies where one can cheat and escape from partners. We formulate a model of endogenous relationships that a player can unilaterally end and start with a randomly assigned new partner with no information flow. Focusing on two-person, two-action Prisoner's Dilemma, we show that the endogenous duration of partnerships generates a significantly different evolutionary stability structure from ordinary random matching games. Monomorphic equilibria require initial trust building, while a polymorphic equilibrium includes earlier cooperators than any strategy in monomorphic equilibria and is thus more efficient. This is due to the non-linearity of average payoffs. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:restud:v:76:y:2009:i:3:p:993-1021
Journal Field
General
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25