Cautious farsighted stability in network formation games with streams of payoffs

Abstract

We propose a new notion of farsighted pairwise stability for dynamic network formation which includes two notable features: consideration of intermediate payoffs and cautiousness. This differs from existing concepts which typically consider either only immediate or final payoffs, and which often require that players are optimistic in any environment without full communication and commitment. For arbitrary (and possibly heterogeneous) preferences over the process of network formation, a non-empty cautious path stable set of networks always exists. Furthermore, some general relationships exist between cautious path stability and other farsighted concepts.