Reputation and Reciprocity: Consequences for the Labour Relation

Recent evidence highlights the importance of social norms in many economic relations. However, many of these relationships are long term and provide repeated game incentives for performance. We experimentally investigate interaction effects of reciprocity and repeated game incentives in two treatments (one-shot and repeated) of a gift-exchange game. In both treatments we observe reciprocity, which is strengthened in the repeated game. A detailed analysis shows that, in the repeated game, some subjects imitate reciprocity. Thus, reciprocity and repeated game incentives reinforce each other. Observed behaviour is robust against experience. We conclude that long-term interaction is a "reciprocity-compatible" contract enforcement device.
JEL classification : J 30; C 91     

Individual best response in the repeated Cournot model

We propose a particular style of punishments to support collusive behavior in an infinitely repeated Cournot oligopoly model for at least the same range of discount factors as Friedman’s trigger strategies. The punishment lasts for a finite number of periods and asymmetry is introduced in such a way that each punisher’s output is the individual best response.      

Asynchronous Choice and Markov Equilibria

We provide a theoretical foundation for the use of Markov strategies in repeated games with asynchronous moves. If admissible strategies must display finite (arbitrarily long) memory and each player incurs a “complexity cost” which depends on the memory length required by her strategy, then every Nash equilibrium must be in Markovian strategies. If, in addition, admissible strategies have uniformly bounded memory, every rationalizable strategy must be Markovian. These results are robust to considerations of perfection and also yield interesting implications for equilibrium selection in simple contexts. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C73.     

Debt as a collusive device in an oligopoly supergame

This paper explores the impact of debt holdings on the output decisions of firms in an oligopoly supergame with stochastic demand fluctuations. It is demonstrated that when perfect collusion is not feasible then there exist circumstances in which increased debt holdings may facilitate tacit collusion. This occurs because higher debt levels act as a credible commitment device which lowers the payoffs accruing to a firm when it defects from the tacitly collusive equilibrium. It is further shown that in these circumstances firms may have an incentive to hold debt for strategic purposes which promote collusion.     

半自助旅游产品质量的博弈分析

旅游产品的质量直接关系到旅行社的经济效益和持久发展.对旅行社来说,提供何种质量的半自助旅游产品是其应对激烈竞争的关键.从无限次重复博弈及其均衡结果得出,旅行社要保持长期的稳定收益必须提供高质量的半自助旅游产品.同时,只有正确认识半自助旅游产品的含义及建立旅游产品信用机制,并在政府的监督管理下才能更好地规范产品质量,使旅游者和旅行社都达到帕累托最优和社会资源配置的有效利用.     

Interconnected games and international environmental problems

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of interconnected games and to show its relevance for modeling international environmental problems. It is argued that an interconnected game approach to international environmental problems may enhance cooperation and provide an alternative to the use of financial side payments to induce countries to cooperate. Two types of interconnected games are distinguished in this paper, i.e. direct sum games and tensor games. In the former all the constituting isolated games are games in strategic form and in the latter they are repeated games. In both cases the interconnected game can be interpreted as a multiple objective game, but only the setting where a trade-off is made for the vector-payoffs is considered. In addition to the formal definition of these types of interconnected games, some elementary results concerning Nash equilibria of such games are derived.Folmer and v. Mouche: Landbouwuniversiteit Wageningen, Postbus 8130, 6700 EW Wageningen, The Netherlands; Ragland: University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0256, U.S.A. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the EAERE conference in Stockholm, June 1991. The authors appreciate comments made by conference participants and journal referees.     

基于博弈论视角的农户合作行为分析

合作是广大分散的小规模经营农户进入市场提高市场谈判地位的有效途径。从农户之间相互作用、相互影响的角度出发,利用博弈模型对农户之间合作的动机和制约因素进行了合理的解释。结果表明:一次性博弈和有限次重复博弈无法使农户摆脱合作失败的困境,无限次重复博弈中合作的达成在现实中很难实现,指出引入激励机制成立农户自愿参加、政府提供服务的合作组织是适合我国国情的农户合作之路。     

Audited reputation

We study reputations with imperfect audit and a reputation market. The main result shows the existence of a separating equilibrium in the reputation market, which contrasts with Tadelis [Tadelis, S., 2002, The market for reputations as an incentive mechanism, Journal of Political Economy 110(4), 854–882].     

彩票发行中委托代理的博弈分析及制度选择——以即开型彩票为例

我国即开型彩票发行中普遍存在着由承销商进行市场销售的委托-代理关系,受信息不对称影响,彩票发行机构与承销商之间便产生了委托-代理的道德风险.本文分别建立了委托-代理关系中政府与承销商间一次博弈模型和重复博弈模型,分析政府与承销商间相互依存行为的影响要素及作用机制,为我国彩票发行中承销制度改革提供建议.     

Inequity aversion and trustees' reciprocity in the trust game

The introduction of inequity concerns into the Trust Game gives rise to complementary concepts of conditional trustworthiness and unconditional untrustworthiness. When the inequity concern is not accounted for, unconditional untrustworthiness is overestimated. The high proportion of trustees adopting the equal division behavioural norm suggests that an unequal distribution of show-up fees may deter trustors from placing trust, and may eventually reduce the incentive to cooperate for both players. It also follows that increases in income inequality can explain declines in self-reported trust in high-income countries.     

Communication in dynastic repeated games: ‘Whitewashes’ and ‘coverups’

Summary. We ask whether communication can directly substitute for memory in dynastic repeated games in which short lived individuals care about the utility of their offspring who replace them in an infinitely repeated game. Each individual is unable to observe what happens before his entry in the game. Past information is therefore conveyed from one cohort to the next by means of communication.When communication is costless and messages are sent simultaneously, communication mechanisms or protocols exist that sustain the same set of equilibrium payoffs as in the standard repeated game. When communication is costless but sequential, the incentives to whitewash the unobservable past history of play become pervasive. These incentives to whitewash can only be countered if some player serves as a neutral historian who verifies the truthfulness of others reports while remaining indifferent in the process. By contrast, when communication is sequential and (lexicographically) costly, all protocols admit only equilibria that sustain stage Nash equilibrium payoffs.We also analyze a centralized communication protocol in which history leaves a footprint that can only hidden by the current cohort by a unanimous coverup. We show that in this case the set of payoffs that are sustainable in equilibrium coincides with the weakly renegotiation proof payoffs of the standard repeated game.Received: 30 September 2002, Revised: 5 August 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: C72, C73, D82.We wish to thank an Associate Editor and Dino Gerardi as well as seminar participants at Arizona State, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Indiana, Montreal, Princeton, Rochester, Vanderbilt, VPI, the 2001 NSF/NBER Decentralization Conference, the Summer 2001 North American Econometric Society Meetings, and the Midwest Theory Conference, 2000, for useful comments and suggestions. All errors are our own.     

Giving little by little: Dynamic voluntary contribution games

Charitable contributions are frequently made over time. Donors are free to contribute whenever they wish and as often as they want, and are frequently updated on the level of contributions by others. A dynamic structure enables donors to condition their contribution on that of others, and, as Schelling [Schelling, Thomas C., The Strategy of Conflict Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.] suggested, it may establish trust thereby increasing charitable giving. Marx and Matthews [Marx, Leslie, and Steven Matthews, “A Dynamic Voluntary Contribution to a Public Project,” Review of Economic Studies, 67, 2000, 327-358.] build on Schelling's insight and show that multiple contribution rounds may secure a provision level that cannot be achieved in the static, one-shot setting, but only if there is a discrete, positive payoff jump upon completion of the project. We examine these two hypotheses experimentally using static and dynamic public good games. We find that contributions are indeed higher in the dynamic than in the static game. However, in contrast to the predictions, the increase in contributions in the dynamic game does not depend critically on the existence of a completion benefit jump or on whether players can condition their decisions on the behavior of other members of their group.     

从信任视角谈委托代理问题的治理

委托代理问题在很大程度上制约着委托代理双方合作关系的发展。以往的研究主要在信息不对称的假设下利用参与约束和激励相容约束条件寻找最优解,最新研究结果表明,通过引入信任机制,可以证明信任在委托代理关系中的存在性和对代理问题治理的有效性。     

医疗领域的政府干预与声誉机制

不确定性和信息不对称常常被认为是医疗市场失灵和政府干预的依据,但政府的过度干预会导致医疗声誉机制的扭曲。改革现行“管办不分”的医疗卫生体制,由市场声誉取代政府行政干预,通过重复博弈建立医生与患者之间的长期稳定关系,解决医疗卫生领域的难题。