Testability of evolutionary game dynamics based on experimental economics data

Abstract

Understanding the dynamic processes of a real game system requires an appropriate dynamics model, and rigorously testing a dynamics model is nontrivial. In our methodological research, we develop an approach to testing the validity of game dynamics models that considers the dynamic patterns of angular momentum and speed as measurement variables. Using Rock-PaperScissors (RPS) games as an example, we illustrate the geometric patterns in the experiment data. We then derive the related theoretical patterns from a series of typical dynamics models. By testing the goodness-of-fit between the experimental and theoretical patterns, we show that the validity of these models can be evaluated quantitatively. Our approach establishes a link between dynamics models and experimental systems, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the most effective and rigorous strategy for ascertaining the testability of evolutionary game dynamics models.

Game Dynamics Structure Control by Design: an Example from Experimental Economics

“…In this game, the eight components of eigenvectors can predict 28 2-d subspace cycling behaviours. In [27], the authors develop an observation, namely eigencycle set, which is determined by the eigenvector deduced from dynamics theory; And at the same time, the eigencycle set are mathematically equivalent to angular momentum measurement [24] in time series .…”

“…The experimental observations of the dynamics structure (e.g., the endogenously cycles in Rock-Paper-Scissors and in matching pennies game experiments near 2014 [4,26,30]), which has been long expected since the established the replicator dynamics [21] for evolutionary game theory, was test out. Further, in various experimental setting, not only the stability, but also the quantitative relationship like frequencies of cycles (reflect the imaginary part of the eigenvalue of the dynamics, at [x:4.5, y:2.5] near 2014 [30]), the velocity field (near 2010 [31]) and angular momentum [24] were test out. Further more, in high dimensional games, the invariant manifold (reflect the inner component structure of the eigenvector of the dynamics) become clear in experiments [27,34,33] (in fig.…”

An Experimental Investigation of Price Dispersion and Cycles

“…Better known spectral techniques deal less effectively with such complications. See Wang et al (2017) for descriptions of other possible methods such as velocity fields and angular momentum. For some purposes, our method has the disadvantage that it will not distinguish between limit cycles and some sorts of chaotic behavior (such as Lorenz attractors) that are almost periodic.…”

Evolutionary Game for Confidentiality in IoT-enabled Smart Grids

“…Evolutionary game theory is a branch of game theory. Evolutionary game theory, rooted in classical game theory and the theory of evolution [25], has been effectively studied to model population dynamics in biology and economics domains but its application to smart grid security has not been fully exploited. Santos et al [26] argue that by using a dynamical approach, such as evolutionary game theory, one is able to follow the self-organization process by which a population of individuals coordinates into a given behaviour.…”