Directional learning and the provisioning of public goods

Heinrich H. Nax (Author), Matjaž Perc (Author)

Abstract

We consider an environment where players are involved in a public goods game and must decide repeatedly whether to make an individual contribution or not. However, players lack strategically relevant information about the game and about the other players in the population. The resulting behavior of players is completely uncoupled from such information, and the individual strategy adjustment dynamics are driven only by reinforcement feedbacks from each player's own past. We show that the resulting "directional learning" is sufficient to explain cooperative deviations away from the Nash equilibrium. We introduce the concept of k-strong equilibria, which nest both the Nash equilibrium and the Aumann-strong equilibrium as two special cases, and we show that, together with the parameters of the learning model, the maximal k-strength of equilibrium determines the stationary distribution. The provisioning of public goods can be secured even under adverse conditions, as long as players are sufficiently responsive to the changes in their own payoffs and adjust their actions accordingly. Substantial levels of public cooperation can thus be explained without arguments involving selflessness or social preferences, solely on the basis of uncoordinated directional (mis)learning.

Keywords

kooperacija;javne dobrine;usmerjeno učenje;fazni prehodi;fizika socioloških sistemov;cooperation;public goods;directional learning;phase transitions;physics of social systems;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2015
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UM FNM - Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
UDC:	53
COBISS:	21181960
ISSN:	2045-2322
Views:	623
Downloads:	288
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary keywords:	kooperacija;javne dobrine;usmerjeno učenje;fazni prehodi;fizika socioloških sistemov;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Scientific work
Pages:	str. 1-6
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ5
Issue:	ǂart. no. ǂ8010
Chronology:	2015
DOI:	10.1038/srep08010
ID:	9142738