Collusion as public monitoring becomes noisy: Experimental evidence

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Economic Theory
Year: 2009
Volume: 144
Issue: 3
Pages: 1135-1165

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

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

Abstract

This paper uses laboratory experiments to test the implications of the theory of repeated games on equilibrium payoffs and estimate strategies in an infinitely repeated prisoners' dilemma game with imperfect public monitoring. We find that subjects' payoffs (i) decrease as noise increases, and (ii) are lower than the theoretical maximum for low noise, but exceed it for high noise. Under the assumption that the subjects' strategy uses thresholds on the public signal for transition between cooperation and punishment states, we find that the best fitting strategy simply compares the most recent public signal against a single threshold.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jetheo:v:144:y:2009:i:3:p:1135-1165
Journal Field
Theory
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24