2012/01 | LEM Working Paper Series | ||||||||||||||||
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You Better Play 7: Mutual versus Common Knowledge of Advice in a Weak-link Experiment |
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Giovanna Devetag, Hykel Hosni, Giacomo Sillari |
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Keywords | |||||||||||||||||
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Coordination games; experimental philosophy; epistemic attitudes, weak-link game; conventions
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JEL Classifications | |||||||||||||||||
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D01, D83
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Abstract | |||||||||||||||||
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This paper presents the results of an experiment on mutual versus
common knowl- edge of advice in a two-player weak-link game with
random matching. Our experimen- tal subjects play in pairs for
thirteen rounds. After a brief learning phase common to all
treatments, we vary the knowledge levels associated with external
advice given in the form of a suggestion to pick the strategy
supporting the payo-dominant equilib- rium. In the mutual knowledge
of level 1 treatment, the suggestion appears on every subject's
monitor at the beginning of every round, with no common knowledge that
everybody sees the same suggestion. In the mutual knowledge of
level 2 treatment, the same suggestion appears on each subject's
monitor, accompanied by the request to "send" the suggestion to the
partner in the round, followed by a notication that the message has
been read. Finally, in the common knowledge treatment, the
suggestion is read aloud by the experimenter at the end of the
learning phase. Our results are somewhat surprising and can be
summarized as follows: in all our treatments both the choice of the
efficiency-inducing action and the percentage of e cient equilibrium
play are higher with respect to the control treatment, revealing that
even a condition as weak as mutual knowledge of level 1 is sufficient
to signicantly increase the salience of the e cient equilibrium with
respect to the absence of advice. Furthermore, and contrary to our
hypothesis, mutual knowledge of level 2 (as the one occurring in our
"message" treatment) induces successful coordination more frequently
than common knowledge.
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