Jamal Awil

← The Strategy of Conflict

Mixed-strategy equilibria can be dominated by pure outcomes. [contrarian]

The game in Fig. 35 does have another equilibrium point, consisting of an 80:20 mixed strategy for Column and a 40:60 mixture for Row. It yields them payoffs of 3.6 apiece, and is therefore jointly dominated by the upper-left and lower-right cells.

QUESTION: How often do jointly dominated equilibria arise in real strategic settings, and do rational players reliably avoid them?

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 873