Construct · 1 fields · 1 citations

grim trigger: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · repeated games Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
grimtrigger1 CONSTRUCTGrim-trigger strategyFRIEDMAN · 1971

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Game theory

Cooperate until the first betrayal, then punish forever

A grim-trigger strategy sustains cooperation in a repeated game by threatening the harshest credible response: players cooperate as long as everyone has cooperated, but the first defection triggers a permanent reversion to the one-shot Nash outcome for the rest of the game. Friedman's 1971 A non-cooperative equilibrium for supergames showed that, when players are patient enough, such trigger strategies make mutual cooperation a subgame-perfect equilibrium even though defection is tempting in any single round. The referent is a specific class of repeated-game strategy, and it is the constructive engine behind folk-theorem results, which rely on the threat of future punishment to support cooperative outcomes.[1]

Unit
The patience (discount factor) at which the cooperative path becomes self-enforcing
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Verified by checking that no one-shot deviation is profitable given the permanent-punishment continuation, above a threshold discount factor

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Nearby constructs

folk theorem1 fields · 2 citationsanchor · one construct, one fieldclass3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructscooperation4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Friedman, J. W. (1971). A non-cooperative equilibrium for supergames. The Review of Economic Studies, 38(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.2307/2296617

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