Inducible Games: Using Tit-for-Tat to Stabilize Outcomes

Steven Brams () and D. Marc Kilgour

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Assume it is known that one player in a 2 x 2 game can detect the strategy choice of its opponent with some probability before play commences. We formulate conditions under which the detector can, by credibly committing to a strategy of probabilistic tit-for-tat (based on its imperfect detector), induce an outcome favorable to itself. A non-Nash, Pareto-optimal outcome is inducible—that is, it can be stabilized via probabilistic tit-for-tat—in 20 of the 57 distinct 2 x 2 strict ordinal games without a mutually best outcome (35 percent). Sometimes the inducement is “weak,” but more often it is “strong.” As a case study, we consider the current conflict between Israel and Iran over Iran’s possible development of nuclear weapons and show that Israel’s credible commitment to probabilistic tit-for-tat can, with sufficiently accurate intelligence, induce a cooperative choice by Iran in one but not the other of two plausible games that model this conflict.

Keywords: 2 x 2 games; tit-for-tat; inducubility; Israel-Iran conflict; nuclear weapons (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C78 D74 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gth and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:41773

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