Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/330077 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Citation: 
[Journal:] Games [ISSN:] 2073-4336 [Volume:] 15 [Issue:] 2 [Article No.:] 8 [Year:] 2024 [Pages:] 1-26
Publisher: 
MDPI, Basel
Abstract: 
We investigate the role and performance of imitative behavior in a class of quantity-setting, Cournot games. Within a framework of evolutionary competition between rational, myopic best-response and imitation heuristics with differential heuristics' costs, we found that the equilibrium stability depends on the sign of the cost differential between the unstable heuristic (Cournot best-response) and the stable one (imitation) and on the intensity of the evolutionary pressure. When this cost differential is positive (i.e., imitation is relatively cheaper vis a vis Cournot), most firms use this heuristic and the Cournot equilibrium is stabilized for market sizes for which it was unstable under Cournot homogeneous learning. However, as the number of firms increases (n=7), instability eventually sets in. When the cost differential is negative (imitation is more expensive than Cournot), complicated quantity fluctuations, along with the co-existence of heuristics, arise already for the triopoly game.
Subjects: 
competing heuristics
evolutionary game dynamics
imitation
JEL: 
C72
C73
D43
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.