Consider agents who undertake costly effort to produce stochastic outputs observable by a principal. The principal can award a prize deterministically to the agent with the highest output, or to all of them with probabilities that are proportional to their outputs. We show that, if there is...

This paper analyzes the cultural evolution of firms and workers. Following an imitation rule, each firm and worker decides whether to be innovative (or not) and skilled (or unskilled). We apply evolutionary game theory to find the system of replicator dynamics, and characterize the low-level and...

It is common to model costs of carrying out strategies in games in relation to the complexity, in some sense, of the strategies. We show a particularly general definition of complexity for this purpose, one that subsumes many alternatives as special cases. We explore how this definition can be...

This paper is a brief history of game theory with its main theme being the nature of the decision makers assumed in the various stages of its historical development. It demonstrates that changes in the "image of man" nourished the developments of what many believe to be progress in game theory....

Mixed-motive noncooperative games feature ambivalence in the competitive relation of the players and outcomes disobliging Nash equilibrium prescription. The Nash approach, ostensibly rational and self-maximizing, regularly advises strategy many players regard as counterintuitive or faulty. And...

Consider agents who undertake costly effort to produce stochastic outputs observable by a principal. The principal can award a prize deterministically to the agent with the highest output, or to all of them with probabilities that are proportional to their outputs. We show that, if there is...

We introduce the novel concept of a three-dimensional payoff matrix based on a simplified version of a card game. This matrix is necessary to represent the three variables which correspond to the dynamics of the game. We find Sonnaville-Mensink Equilibria (SME) that represent the optimal actions...

Does inequality hinder or promote cooperation? To answer this question, we study a Prisoner’s Dilemma with local adaptation, to which we add heterogeneity in payoffs. In our model, agents vary in their wealth, and this inequality affects their potential gains and losses. We find that, in such...

This paper models the coalition formation process among primates as a sequential game. The population consists of primates having distinct social ranks. The rank of each individual is determined by his resource holding potential. Each member of the population is interested in gaining access to a...

Italian Abstract: Come è stata modellata la pubblicità in economia? Essenzialmente la pubblicità è un modo di espandere la domanda. Nel caso di differenziazione orizzontale, la pubblicità può differenziare artificialmente un bene altrimenti omogeneo (pubblicità persuasiva) o rendere...