Bounding payoffs in repeated games with private monitoring: n-player games

摘要

We provide a simple upper bound on the Nash equilibrium payoff set at a fixed discount factor in repeated games with imperfect private monitoring. The bound admits a tractable recursive characterization and can thus be applied "off-the-shelf' to any repeated game. The bound is not tight in general, but it is tight if the stage game is "concave" or if a certain form of observable mixed actions is allowed. We illustrate our results with applications to the repeated prisoners' dilemma and to canonical public goods and oligopoly games. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.