Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

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Bargaining over a common categorisation

Marco LiCalziNadia Maagli

pp. 705-723

Abstract

Two agents endowed with different categorisations engage in bargaining to reach an understanding and agree on a common categorisation. We model the process as a simple non-cooperative game and demonstrate three results. When the initial disagreement is focused, the bargaining process has a zero-sum structure. When the disagreement is widespread, the zero-sum structure disappears and the unique equilibrium requires a retraction of consensus: two agents who individually associate a region with the same category end up rebranding it under a different category. Finally, we show that this last equilibrium outcome is Pareto dominated by a cooperative solution that avoids retraction; that is, the unique equilibrium agreement may be inefficient.

Publication details

Published in:

Ågotnes Thomas, Bonanno Giacomo, van der Hoek Wiebe (2016) Logic and the foundations of game and decision theory. Synthese 193 (3).

Pages: 705-723

DOI: 10.1007/s11229-015-0790-5

Full citation:

LiCalzi Marco, Maagli Nadia (2016) „Bargaining over a common categorisation“. Synthese 193 (3), 705–723.