It is well known that the rock-paper-scissors game has no pure saddle point. We show that this holds more generally: A symmetric two-player zero-sum game has a pure saddle point if and only if it is not a generalized rock-paper-scissors game. Moreover, we show that every finite symmetric...

We show that for many classes of symmetric two-player games, the simple decision rule imitate-the-best can hardly be beaten by any other decision rule. We provide necessary and sufficient conditions for imitation to be unbeatable and show that it can only be beaten by much in games that are of...

Eine der überzeugenderen Rechtfertigungen für die Anwendung von gemischten Gleichgewichten in der Spieltheorie ist die sogenannte Populationsinterpretation. Danach wird ein gemischtes Gleichgewicht als ein Zustand in einer Bevölkerung beschrieben, in der alle Spieler eine reine Strategie...

We report results of experiments designed to test the predictions of the best-reply process. In a Cournot oligopoly with four firms, the best-reply process should theoretically explode if demand and cost functions are linear. We find, however, no experimental evidence of such instability....

Brown and von Neumann introduced a dynamical system that converges to saddle points of zero sum games with finitely many strategies. Nash used the mapping underlying these dynamics to prove existence of equilibria in general games. The resulting Brown-von Neumann-Nash dynamics are a benchmark...

In the variable supply auction considered here, the seller decides how many costumers with unit demand to serve after observing their bids. Bidders are uncertain about the seller's cost. We experimentally investigate whether a uniform or a discriminatory price auction is better for the seller in...