Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/computational-game-theory/1/b/solution
Past exam of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2018 Computational game theory 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
With rows and columns ordered Head, Tail, the payoff matrix of ordered pairs isThis is a zero-sum game. There is no pure Nash equilibrium: when the coins match, player 1 gains by switching to a mismatch; when they do not match, player 2 gains by making them match. Since , these improvements are strict.
Let and be the respective probabilities that players 1 and 2 choose Head. Player 1's payoffs from Head and Tail are and . Player 2 is indifferent when the corresponding player-1 payoffs against its two pure actions, and , agree. The resulting unique fully mixed Nash equilibrium isBoth numbers lie strictly between zero and one. If either player instead used a pure action, the other's unique best response would force the pure-action cycle above, so there are no additional partly mixed equilibria. Substitution gives player 1's expected payoff and its negative for player 2.
The two best response correspondences intersect at the unique mixed equilibrium
. The horizontal axis is player 1's Head probability , and the vertical axis is player 2's Head probability . Whole intervals at indifference are included. Details. New to topics? Read the docs here!
