Competition tends to promote efficient (equilibrium) behavior through the higher survival of the organizations (say firms) that adopt it. On the other hand, culture (understood as the "inherited" social pattern of behavior) may induce certain short-run inertias. This paper analyzes a dynamic...

A model of "satisficing" behavior in the repeated Prisoners Dilemma is studied. Each player has an aspiration at each date, and takes an action. [S]he switches from the action played in the previous period only if the achieved payoff fell below the aspiration level (with a probability that...

Consider an evolutionary context where a given number of quantity-setting oligopolists tend to mimic successful behavior, occasionally experimenting with some small probability. In this context, it is shown that the unique long-run outcome of the process has all firms playing Walrasian, i.e.,...

In this paper, we analyze a generalization of the evolutionary model of Kandori, Mailath, & Rob (1991) where the population is partitioned into disjoint groups and evolution takes place "in parallel" at the following two levels: (i) within groups, at the lower level; among groups, at the higher...

In a preceding companion paper, a static model of individual decision making was proposed that, due to imprecise perceptions, induces simple and inertial behavior at equilibrium ("status-quo optimal") points. This paper addresses two complementary issues. First, it studies the learning dynamics...

When far-sighted agents may adjust their behavior only gradually , the issue of equilibrium selection in games becomes one of tension between "history" and "expectations". This paper analyzes whether, in this context, a planner may intervene successfully through short-run policies which redirect...

In this paper, 1 propose a game-theoretic, intertemporal model of industrial competition in which active firms innovate, imitate, enter or exit as it is optimal in some prevailing (Markov Perfect) equilibrium. The main novel feature of the approach is that technological change is modelled as...

This paper investigates an evolutionary model of equilibrium selection in which agents are randomly paired every period to play some general symrnetric game of common interest (i.e., a game where some strategy profile Pareto- dominates al1 other configurations). Along the process, players tend...

Consider a large (continuum) population of finitely-lived agents organized in hierarchical levels.Every period, agents are matched to play a certain symmetric game. On the basis of the payoffsobtained, a certain p-fraction of those who performed best at each level are promoted upwords. Onthe...

This paper studies a stylized model of local interaction where agents choose from an ever increasing set of vertically ranked actions, e.g. technologies. The driving forces of the model are infrequent upward shifts ("updates"), followed by a rapid process of local imitation ("diffusion"). Our...