Farsightedness in a Coalitional Great Fish War

Abstract

We explore the implications of the farsightedness assumption on the conjectures of players in a coalitional Great Fish War model with symmetric players, derived from the seminal model of Levhari and Mirman (Bell J Econ 11:649-661, 1980). The farsightedness assumption for players in a coalitional game acknowledges the fact that a deviation from a single player will lead to the formation of a new coalition structure as the result of possibly successive moves of her rivals in order to improve their payoffs. It departs from mainstream game theory in that it relies on the so-called rational conjectures, as opposed to the traditional Nash conjectures formed by players on the behavior of their rivals. For values of the biological parameter and the discount factor more plausible than the ones used in the current literature, the farsightedness assumption predicts a wide scope for cooperation in non-trivial coalitions, sustained by credible threats of successive deviations that defeat the shortsighted payoff of any prospective deviator. Compliance or deterrence of deviations may also be addressed by acknowledging that information on the fish stock or on the catch policies actually implemented may be available only with a delay (dynamic farsightedness). In that case, the requirements are stronger and the sizes and number of possible farsighted stable coalitions are different. In the sequential move version, which could mimic some characteristics of fishery models, the results are not less appealing, even if the dominant player or dominant coalition with first move advantage assumption provides a case for cooperation with the traditional Nash conjectures.

Cleaner Technologies and the Stability of International Environmental Agreements

“…See Breton and Keoula () sections and 4.2 for an application in the context of fisheries and Nakanishi () for an application in the context of international trade agreements.…”

Dynamic Games in the Economics of Natural Resources: A Survey

“…For some preliminary steps in this direction, see[23] and[131] 15. Leonard and Long[98] explore these issues in an overlapping-generation model 16.…”

Noncooperative Management of the Northeast Atlantic Cod Fishery: A First Mover Advantage

“…The analysis of coalitions would then become relevant. Current coalition fisheries games have not taken time considerations into account yet (see Breton and Keoula for one of the few contributions), and the modeling approach in the current paper might be one interesting development in the coalition or partition function game applications.…”