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Chap9 EX ENONCES
Chap9 EX ENONCES
Chap9 EX ENONCES
9
Game Theory and Strategic Interactions
#1 TRUE or FALSE: In a prisoner’s dilemma, the players could reach the efficient
outcome (Silence, Silence) if they could communicate before making their decision.
#2 Suppose that your firm competes against another firm for customers through
advertising. In this industry, advertising induces customers to switch from one firm to
the other but does not impact total demand. If both firms advertise, the campaigns will
offset one another, and each will make $5 million in profits. If neither firm advertises,
firms will save on the cost of advertising and each makes $10 million in profits. If one
firm advertises and the other does not, the advertising firm captures most of the market
and makes $13 million in profits while the other makes $2 million in profits.
Represent this strategic interaction in a table.
Is your best strategy to advertise or not to advertise? How much money do you expect
to earn?
#3 Travelers’ Dilemma
An airline loses two suitcases belonging to two different travelers. Both suitcases
happen to be identical and contain items of identical value. An airline manager tasked to
settle the claims of both travelers explains that the airline is liable for a maximum of
$100 per suitcase (he is unable to find out directly the price of the items), and in order
to determine an honest appraised value of the antiques the manager separates both
travelers so they can't confer, and asks them to write down the amount of their value at
no less than $2 and no larger than $100. He also tells them that if both write down the
same number, he will treat that number as the true dollar value of both suitcases and
reimburse both travelers that amount. However, if one writes down a smaller number
than the other, this smaller number will be taken as the true dollar value, and both
travelers will receive that amount along with a bonus/malus: $2 extra will be paid to the
traveler who wrote down the lower value and a $2 deduction will be taken from the
person who wrote down the higher amount. What strategy should both travelers follow
to decide the value they should write down?
Write the game table when instead of $100 the maximum price is $5, that is, each
traveler has 4 possible strategies ($2, $3, $4, $5). What is the Nash equilibrium of the
game? Use your result to find the best strategy in the game described in the text.
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#4 Until recently, medical doctors and lawyers have been prohibited from engaging in
competitive advertising. If the prisoners' dilemma applies to this situation, then the
presence of this restriction would be likely to:
a) increase profits earned by individuals in these professions
b) reduce profits earned by individuals in these professions
c) have no effect on the profits earned by individuals in these professions
d) increase the profits of some and reduce the profits of other individuals in these
professions
#5 Consider the following table which represents a game between two players with the
given payoffs.
Player 2
A B
A 1 ; 4 – x 2 ; 2
a) For what values of x is strategy B a dominant strategy for Player 1?
b) For what values of x is strategy B a dominant strategy for Player 2?
c) For what values of x is (B,B) the only Nash equilibrium of the game?
#6 Doping as a prisoners dilemma.
Consider the dilemma faced by high‐performance athletes when they choose whether
to use a performance enhancing drug. For simplicity, there are two athletes of
comparable ability. If neither athlete uses PED or if they both use PED they have 50% of
winning the competition and the prize W associated with it. If they use PED, they suffer
a health cost H (small with respect to W, H < W/4). If one athlete uses PED and the other
does not, his chances to win the prize increase to 75%.
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Write down the payoff matrix representing the game. You need to compute the
expected payoff of the athletes under all scenarios. What is the Nash equilibrium of the
game? What could be done to resolve this doping dilemma?
#7 Explain why the practice of check splitting (i.e., dividing the total amount equally
between diners) causes people to spend more at restaurants.
#8 Subsidizing new product development
Consider the market for very large airplanes. Two firms co‐exist on the market and have
two choices, to develop the Very Large Commercial Transport (VLCT)or not to develop it.
Payoffs (in millions of dollars) for the 4 possible outcomes are given in the table.
AIRBUS
Produce Don’t Produce
Produce ‐10 ; ‐10 50 ; 0
Determine the Nash equilibria in the game.
Suppose now that the European Union subsidizes Airbus by providing $15 million for the
development of an Airbus plane.
How does this change the payoff table? What are the Nash equilibria of the game?
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#9 Saving Dilemma and Social Security
Consider the game played between different generations in a country. The old
generation can save money when young or spend it all. The young generation can then
help the old generation or not help.
The payoffs of the game can be summarized in the following table:
Young generation
Help Does not help
Save 3 ; ‐1 1 ; 1
What is the Nash equilibrium of the game?
What happens if the game is played sequentially (the old generation moves first)?
Discuss.
#10 Winning the battle of the sexes
Recall the game from the notes:
Wife
Concert Hockey game
Husband Concert 1 ; 2 0 ; 0
Suppose now that you can leave a message on the other player’s phone sating that you
are going to one of the activity. Represent the game in tree‐form. What would be the
outcome of this sequential game? Explain.
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