A connection between von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility and symmetric potential games
Mehmet S. Ismail () and
Ronald Peeters
Additional contact information
Mehmet S. Ismail: King’s College London
Theory and Decision, 2024, vol. 97, issue 4, No 5, 707-720
Abstract:
Abstract This paper establishes a previously unexplored connection between expected utility theory and potential games. Starting with a decision problem with a complete preference relation over lotteries on a finite set of alternatives, we construct a two-person symmetric game using a payoff function that represents the preference relation, and show that if the preference relation satisfies the von Neumann-Morgenstern expected utility axioms then the constructed game is a potential game. Conversely, starting with a two-player symmetric game, we (uniquely) construct a (complete) preference relation over the lotteries using the first player’s payoffs in the game, and show that if the game is a potential game then the resulting preference relation satisfies the expected utility axioms.
Keywords: Expected utility; Potential games; Symmetric two-player games; SSB utility; Independence axiom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11238-024-09991-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:theord:v:97:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s11238-024-09991-x
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ry/journal/11238/PS2
DOI: 10.1007/s11238-024-09991-x
Access Statistics for this article
Theory and Decision is currently edited by Mohammed Abdellaoui
More articles in Theory and Decision from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().