Evolutionary Selection Dynamics and Irrational Survivors

Abstract

We consider certain classes of evolutionary selection dynamics in discrete and continuous time and investigate whether strictly dominated strategies can survive in the long run. Two types of results are presented in connection with a class of games containing the game introduced by Dekel and Scotchmer [5]. First, we use an overlapping-generations version of the discrete-time replicator dynamics and establish conditions on the degree of generational overlap for the survival and extinction, respectively, of the strictly dominated strategy in such games. We illustrate these results by means of computer simulations. Second, we show that the strictly dominated strategy may survive in certain evolutionary selection dynamics in continuous time. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, C73.