Can You Guess the Game You're Playing?

Bonn Grad School Econ. Discussion Paper No. 11/2000

30 Pages Posted: 20 Feb 2001

See all articles by Joerg Oechssler

Joerg Oechssler

University of Heidelberg - Alfred Weber Institute for Economics

Burkhard C. Schipper

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 6, 2002

Abstract

Recently there has been much work on learning in games. However, learning usually means "learning about behavior of opponents" rather than "learning about the game" as such. Here we test in an experiment whether players in a repeated encounter can learn the payoff structures of their opponents by rewarding subjects for correct guesses. Our data allows to construct the games that subjects perceive to be playing, the subjective games. We find that subjects often play according to an equilibrium in their subjective game. However, subjective games frequently differ from the games actually played.

Keywords: learning, subjective games, experiments

JEL Classification: C72, C92, D83

Suggested Citation

Oechssler, Joerg and Schipper, Burkhard C., Can You Guess the Game You're Playing? (March 6, 2002). Bonn Grad School Econ. Discussion Paper No. 11/2000, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=259296 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.259296

Joerg Oechssler

University of Heidelberg - Alfred Weber Institute for Economics ( email )

Grabengasse 14
Heidelberg, D-69117
Germany
+49 6221 54 3548 (Phone)
+49 6221 54 3630 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.awi.uni-heidelberg.de/with2/theorie2/Team/Oechssler/Oechssler_main.html

Burkhard C. Schipper (Contact Author)

University of California, Davis - Department of Economics ( email )

One Shields Drive
Davis, CA 95616-8578
United States
530-752-6142 (Phone)
530-752-9382 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/schipper/

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