The Evolution of Cooperation in the Finitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma

Abstract

This paper examines evolutionary dynamic behavior in the finitely repeated prisoner's dilemma. It is first noted that the fitness of cooperation found in the best known simulation of this type, that by Robert Axelrod, stems from strategy set restrictions that altered Nash equilibrium behavior: Axelrod's restricted game has a continuum of pure cooperation equilibria and no pure defection equilibrium. New simulations, maintaining the finite game's equilibrium structure, are presented here. It is found that although cooperation is ultimately exploited and extinguished, dynamic paths can pseudo converge in ways that allow partial cooperation to flourish for extended periods of time. (Author) (kr)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1989
Accession Number
ADA228414

Entities

People

  • John H. Nachbar

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analyzers
  • Biology
  • Boundaries
  • Computers
  • Convergence
  • Cooperation
  • Corporations
  • Demography
  • Dynamics
  • Extinction
  • Game Theory
  • Intervals
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Population Genetics
  • Probability
  • Simulations
  • Statistics

Fields of Study

  • Economics

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Economics
  • Game Theory.