Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/89769 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 4553
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
When the repeated prisoner's dilemma setup is generalized to allow for a unilateral breakup, maximal efficiency in equilibrium remains an open question. With restrictions of simple symmetry with eternal mutual cooperation, defection, or (matched) alternation on the equilibrium path, we describe the upper limit of discounted lifetime payoff and construct simple social conventions that, for a large set of parameters, achieve it. While all other well-known equilibrium designs in the literature punish defections with a breakup and thus reach the optimum only in degenerate cases, exploited cooperators in ours allow defectors to compensate them by cooperating more in the future.
Subjects: 
voluntary continuation
repeated prisoner's dilemma
social convention
moral maxim
finite automation
eternal cooperation
eternal alternation
JEL: 
C73
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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