Nash Equilibrium and the Evolution of Preferences

Jeffrey C. Ely and Okan Yilankaya ()

No 1191, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: A population of players of players is randomly matched to play a normal form game G. The payoffs in this game represent the fitness associated with the various outcomes. Each individual has preferences over the outcomes in the game and chooses an optimal action with respect to those preferences. However, these preferences needn't coincide withe the fitness payoffs. When evolution selects individuals on the basis of the fitness of the actions they choose, the distribution of aggregate play must be a Nash equilibrium of G. Weak additional assumptions on the evolutionary process imply perfect equilibrium.

Date: 1997-08
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (6) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/1191.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Nash Equilibrium and the Evolution of Preferences (2001)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1191

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science
Address: Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Fran Walker ().