Strategic reasoning in p-beauty contests

Abstract

This paper analyzes strategic choice in p-beauty contests. First, I show that it is not generally a best reply to guess the expected target value, even in games with n>2 players, and that iterated best response strictly applied does not induce a choice sequence approximating pk⋅0.5. Second, I argue that the beliefs and actions of players typically considered to be level 2–4 are intuitively captured also by high-level concepts such as quantal response equilibrium and noisy introspection. Third, I analyze this hypothesis econometrically. The results concur. In six different data sets, the choices are described more adequately as mixtures of quantal response equilibrium and noisy introspection than as level-k mixtures.