Positive harmony transformations and equilibrium selection in two-player games

Game harmony is a generic game property that describes how harmonious (non-conflictual) or disharmonious (conflictual) the interests of players are, as embodied in the payoffs. It can be used to predict cooperation in two-player games. We show how, for large enough positive harmony transformations o...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zizzo, D
Format: Working paper
Published: University of Oxford 2004
Description
Summary:Game harmony is a generic game property that describes how harmonious (non-conflictual) or disharmonious (conflictual) the interests of players are, as embodied in the payoffs. It can be used to predict cooperation in two-player games. We show how, for large enough positive harmony transformations of the game, a utilitarian solution is always a Nash equilibrium, coincides with the Nash bargaining solution and acquires further desirable properties of payoff and risk dominance. Case-based reasoning and team reasoning are alternative mechanisms by which game harmony measures can successfully predict cooperative behavior.