A Comment on "Cycles and Instability in a Rock-Paper-Scissors Population Game: A Continuous Time Experiment"

Wang, Zhijian and Zhu, Siqian and Xu, Bin (2013): A Comment on "Cycles and Instability in a Rock-Paper-Scissors Population Game: A Continuous Time Experiment".

Abstract

The authors (Cason, Friedman and Hopkins, Review of Economic Studies, 2014) claimed that control treatments (using simultaneous matching in discrete time) replicate previous results that exhibit weak or no cycles. After correcting two mathematical mistakes in their cycles tripwire algorithm, we study the cycles by scanning the tripwire in the full strategy space of the games and we find significant cycles that were omitted by the authors. So we suggest that all of the treatments exhibit significant cycles.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: experiments; learning; cycles; mixed equilibrium; discrete time
• Subjects: C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C7 - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory > C72 - Noncooperative Games; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C7 - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory > C73 - Stochastic and Dynamic Games ; Evolutionary Games ; Repeated Games; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C9 - Design of Experiments > C92 - Laboratory, Group Behavior; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness

References

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3. Cason, T. N., D. Friedman, and E. Hopkins. 2014. “Cycles and Instability in a Rock-Paper-Scissors Population Game: a Continuous Time Experiment.” Review of Economic Studies 81, doi:10.1093/restud/rdt023.

4. Xu, B., H.-J. Zhou, and Z. Wang. 2013. “Cycle frequency in standard Rock-Paper-Scissors games: Evidence from experimental economics.” Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 392 (20):4997 – 5005, doi:10.1016/j.physa.2013.06.039.