Global Game Research Articles

Technology Adoption in Critical Mass Games: Theory and Experimental Evidence

We analyze the choices between two technologies A and B that both exhibit network eects. We introduce a critical mass game in which coordination on either one of the stan- dards constitutes a Nash equilibrium outcome while coordination on standard B is assumed to be payo¤-dominant. We present a heuristic de…nition of a critical mass and show that the critical mass is inversely related to the mixed strategy equilibrium. We show that the critical mass is closely related to the risk dominance criterion, the global game theory, and the maximin criterion. We present experimental evidence that both the relative degree of payodominance and risk dominance explain players'choices. We …nally show that users' adoption behavior induces …rms to select a relatively unrisky technology which minimizes

Slumdog Millionaire

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reinterpret rhetorical inventions in global multimedia and to re‐conceptualize the theoretical analysis of processes of sentimental representation of global inequalities, unfair terms of exchange and attempts to balance them (“Bollywood” of Mumbai vs Hollywood of LA).Design/methodology/approachPhilosophical and qualitative analysis of the rhetoric of communication forged by global power games and applied to symbolic strategies of resistance, with a case study of a particular highly successful movie in global multimedia network, namely Slumdog Millionaire, which had been coproduced jointly by professionals from the former “colonial power” (the UK) and from the former “conquered colony” (India) in order to challenge the latest superpower (Hollywood and the USA).FindingsYesterday's underdogs are talking back and winning the symbolic game of multimediated communications by inserting a new professionally shaped response to the international inequalities laid bare and exposed to a growing critique. However, the ironies of the international division of labor and local cultural contexts can turn “sweatshops” into “boudoirs” subverting the rhetoric of Western domination. More Bollywood‐like strategies are needed to redress the imbalance.Originality/valueApart from the very specialist studies in the aesthetics of the film as an art form, this is the first attempt to demonstrate the common theme of resistance to the dominant rhetoric of multimedia industries on the level of coding symbolic meanings and disseminating them through aesthetically successful cultural commodities by groups and regions “cast” in subordinate roles by cultural industries.

The Global Game: Writers on Soccer

The Global Game: Writers on Soccer

Finanzhilfen bei internationalen Verschuldungskrisen?

Summary The present paper focuses on the trade-off between official liquidity provision and debtor moral hazard in sovereign debt problems. The financial crisis is caused by the interaction of bad fundamentals, self-fulfilling runs of private investors and optimal policies of the national government and the official lender. Building on the global games approach of Morris and Shin (2006), we extend their analysis by calculating numerical solutions for different values of fundamental and strategic uncertainty. Our results indicate that limited financial support may even strengthen government efforts and improve welfare when fundamentals are weak but not too weak. On the other hand, we are also able to identify debtor moral hazard and welfare reducing catalytic effects with stronger fundamentals.

Information-based contagion and the implications for financial fragility

This paper explores a global game model of information-based financial contagion. By revealing information on a common fundamental factor and thereby affecting the behavior of creditors, the failure of a single firm can trigger the failure of another firm. The model provides a unique equilibrium framework to assess the consequences of contagion and yields some hitherto unnoticed insights. While contagion increases the correlation among the financial failures of different firms, its impact on the incidence of failure is ambiguous. I consider an analytically tractable version of the model in which the effect on the ex ante failure probabilities is exactly zero. Moreover, the impact of contagion increases with the relevance of a common underlying fundamental, but is limited to firms near the brink of success or failure.

Inequality in the Internet Age: A Twenty-First Century Dilemma

We now live in a networked, global environment where having instant access to news and data—the currencies of the information age—require computer-mediated technologies and the competency to use them. Though knowledge-intensive activities are a critical component of the modern economy (Hargittai 2002), access to and proficiency with information and communication technologies are not equally shared among populations within countries or between countries themselves. The unequal allocation of digital resources insures that some countries and populations will find it difficult to compete in the global game of life (Norris 2001). This special section, ‘‘Inequality in the Internet Age: Macro and Micro Perspectives,’’ is an extended discussion of this nascent form of human disparity. The goal of this project was to bring together several scholars whose work is expanding our understanding of the disparate distribution of information and communication technologies as well as differences in human proficiency with these resources. The study of inequality and new media technologies encompasses a wide variety of perspectives and units of analysis; our contributors and their work reflect that diversity.

Speculative Trading and Crises

Speculative trading, in particular short-selling of stocks and credit default swaps (CDSs), has been blamed for playing a direct role in bringing down financial firms in the past years and Greek bonds this year. This paper investigates the mechanism through which short-selling and other naked trades can cause failures of financial firms and state financing. We develop a rational expectation equilibrium model of self-fulfilling bank failure and show that the mechanism of speculative attack on sovereign debt is essentially the same. In stark contrast with the received wisdom, we show that the fundamental problem of short-selling is that it leads to an increase in uncertainty and information asymmetry on the firm's fundamental value. The exacerbation of information asymmetry leads to an increase in both downside and upside risk. Debtholders who have a concave payoff, however, only care about the downside risk and thus run, making default and failure become self-fulfilling, while speculators gain from the failure. Interestingly, we show that the short-selling of financial stocks essentially involves two coordination problems, or two runs: aggressive run among speculators and conservative run among creditors. We use the global game methodology to model these two runs. Importantly, we find that the two runs interact with, and reinforce each other, which makes the bank very vulnerable under attack. Our work also contributes to the theoretical literature on global games by developing a model that simultaneously endogenizes strategic complements, information structure and payoff structure.

Fear of Miscoordination and the Robustness of Cooperation in Dynamic Global Games With Exit

This paper develops a framework to assess how fear of miscoordination affects the sustainability of cooperation. Building on theoretical insights from Carlsson and van Damme (1993), it explores the effect of small amounts of private information on a class of dynamic cooperation games with exit. Lack of common knowledge leads players to second guess each other's behavior and makes coordination difficult. This restricts the range of equilibria and highlights the role of miscoordination payoffs in determining whether cooperation is sustainable or not. The paper characterizes the range of perfect Bayesian equilibria as the players' information becomes arbitrarily precise. Unlike in one-shot two-by-two games, the global games information structure does not yield equilibrium uniqueness.

Alone in the Woods: The Literary Landscape of Soccer's "Last Defender"

ESSAY In suburban Maryland, at the birth of the youth-soccer boom in the mid-1970s, players of my acquaintance did not choose to be goal keepers. They were relegated to the position. Was one boy stouter than others? Was he slower afoot? Did he have experience as a Little League catcher, meaning he was accustomed to ignoring prickly comments from behind the backstop? Was he a loner at heart, not likely to lose friends that he did not have anyway? These souls found themselves in goal, their vulnerabilities open to inspection. Playing goal was like having the waistband of one's underpants exposed, which, in those days, would inevitably lead to humiliation by practitio ners of the wedgie arts. The only person to volunteer for the job on one of the sides I played on was dragged off midway through a match by his father, our coach. David tried digging his cleats in, but his dad wrapped a forearm around his neck and dragged him behind goal, where David sobbed on all fours, his back convulsing as if he were about to be sick. We were twelve-year-old boys. Still, I have not forgotten this Oedipal struggle, preserved in mind as a tableau of dust and rage. As a result, I learned to interpret all sports through a rubric of terror. A popular saying in Brazil accounts for the goalkeeper's sorrow: "The grass doesn't even grow where he stands on the pitch." The goalie, Alone in the Woods: The Literary Landscape of Soccer's "Last Defender" To writers worldwide, they are penitents, patriots, and paragons of uncertainty. Goalkeepers and their "eccentric art"hold an enduring attraction. from a literary perspective, embodies a separation that belies his integral importance within the team. Yet over more than a century, goalkeepers and authors have forged close ties. Some goalkeep ers?Albert Camus, Vladimir Nabokov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Mustafa Badawi?became writers. Another, Karol Wojtyla of Wadowice, Poland, became pope. Other writers enlist goalkeepers in their work as disaffected observers and outcasts, having discovered that these guardians of the penalty area transform rather easily into cisterns of introspection. To Nabokov, the goalkeeper practicesv'eccen tric art" In Conclusive Evidence(1951), Nabokov sketches the prototypical Russian goalkeeper: "Aloof, solitary, impassive, the crack goalie is followed in the streets by entranced small boys. His sweater, his peaked cap, his knee-guards; the gloves protruding from the hip-pocket of his shorts, set him apart from the rest of the team. He is the lone eagle, the man of mystery, the last defender." Nabokov confesses to "daydreaming in goal at Cambridge University, "composing verse in a tongue nobody understood about a remote country nobody knew." Here, Nabokov creates a caricature of goalkeeping that shows no sign of fading. Even in exaltation, the goalie remains peripheral. The goalkeeper, as novice observers would recognize, stands at a threshold. Unlike the ten field players in association football?the official name for the sport codified, with thirteen laws, in London in 1863?the goalkeeper can handle the ball within a penalty area of roughly seven left A1958 picture of former Soviet goalkeeper Lev Yashin, who served as Nabokov's prototype July-August 2010 119 John Turnbull edits The Global Game (www. theglobalgame.com), a website of world soccer culture. He coedited The Global Game: Writers on Soccer (University of Nebraska Press, 2008) and has written on soccer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, New York Times, So Foot (Paris), When Saturday Comes (London), Soccer and Society, and Afriche e Orienti. He lives in Atlanta and supports the Atlanta Beat and Arsenal (London). thousand square feet. Throughout the sporting universe, whether team handball, water polo, lacrosse, or ice hockey, tending goal demands presence and undivided attention. Writing about hockey in The Game (1983), Ken Dryden concludes that "the differences between 'players' and 'goal ies' are manifest and real, transcending as they do even culture and sport." In Dryden's goaltending career with the Montr?al Canadiens, he and his colleagues were called "ghoulies." Goalkeepers in this sense may be spiritual heirs to Mesoamerican ballplayers, who straddled mortal and immortal realms as they competed in sunken courts starting some 3,500...

Video Games for the "Next Billion": The Launch of the Zeebo Console

Video Games for the "Next Billion":The Launch of the Zeebo Console Ben Aslinger At first glance it may not look like much. Weighing under 0.9 kilogram (approximately 2 pounds), it is lighter than an Xbox 360 power adapter. The Zeebo gaming machine, which measures 157 x 215.4 x 44 millimeters (approximately 6.18 x 8.48 x 1.73 inches), sports a 1GB hard drive, running on technology developed by the U.S. firm Qualcomm. Using only 1W of power, it is-unlike other consoles-energy efficient. Games can be downloaded over a free 3G connection and are released digitally in the BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) platform, with each game needing between 5 and 50 MB of memory space on the console. The Brazilian version of the console ships with three games in memory: FIFA 2009, Need for Speed Carbon, and Brain Training (all in Portuguese). Purchasers also receive credit for three more downloads: Prey Evil, Quake, and Quake II (Flatley). While it may not boast the postmodern look of the PS3, the sleek lines of the pure white Wii, or the raw computing power of the Xbox 360/PS3, the Zeebo has stirred up critical debates in the gaming and tech blogosphere, the business press, and games publications such as Edge and Game Developer about the globalization of video games, piracy, and the dominance of the big three console manufacturers and major publishers. Described by corporate leaders, gaming journalists, and bloggers as the console for the "next billion" gamers, the Zeebo's July 2009 launch in Rio de Janeiro sparked hopes that consoles will enter new homes around the globe. A partnership between U.S. firm Qualcomm and Brazilian firm Tectoy, San Diego-based Zeebo is hoping not to follow in the footsteps of the Phantom gaming system-a system that tried and ultimately failed at digital distribution-and the Sega Dreamcast-a system that never achieved an install base large enough to prompt publishers to release many titles for the console. As Zeebo CEO John F. Rizzo states, "Launching a new console is not for the faint of heart" ("Game Console"). At first, this venture seems daring because new gaming ventures, especially in a global recession, would seem to raise eyebrows. However, the return to a plug-and-play style-along with the fact that Zeebo's emergence provides another point of industrial resistance to the big three console manufacturers-excited bloggers and journalists. Shortly after the announcement of Zeebo's launch date in Brazil, Richard Conrad wrote for Australia's Herald Sun, "Zeebo's back-to-basics attitude and easy plug-and-play setup may well make it hip enough to carve out a niche elsewhere" (Conrad 4). Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz writes: "Just when you thought nothing could happen in the console gaming world beyond Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, here comes the cheap and colorful Zeebo and launches in Brazil with actual titles from some big labels." In addition to Conrad and Diaz, other observers also hope that the Zeebo will stimulate local game development and help counteract video game piracy by competing head-to-head with the gray and black markets. While global flows of film and television texts have received significant attention from political economists and cultural policy scholars (Schiller; McChesney; Miller et al.), there has been less attention from media and cultural studies scholars to the devices on which these texts have been viewed (some notable exceptions can be found in the work of Spigel; Mayer; and Paredes). Considering that gaming studies is still a nascent field, much more needs to be said about the machines and the games. The management of global gaming flows has been in the hands of the major console manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and, for a time, Sega) and the dominant publishers Ubisoft, Activision, Namco, Konami, Sega, and Electronic Arts. The developing world has primarily been figured as the site of hardware production and [End Page 15] the site of game piracy. This article seeks to deepen our understandings of transnational gaming flows by moving beyond the global North in order to think about how the discursive categories of the game player, the...

South Africa and the global game: Introduction

On 11 May 1994, the festivities for Nelson Mandela‘s presidential inauguration included a soccer match between South Africa and Zambia at Ellis Park in Johannesburg. At halftime, Mandela‘s helicopter landed on the pitch. As the president stepped out onto the grass, the huge crowd erupted in a thunderous roar. When play resumed, the South Africans seemed electrified and went on to win the match 2-1. On 15 May 2004 in Zurich, Switzerland, Mandela wept with joy when the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) awarded South Africa the right to host the 2010 World Cup. South Africans celebrated in the streets as if they had not simply won hosting rights, but the World Cup itself! To some extent this outburst of euphoria surpassed 1994,‘ commented Ahmed Kathrada, the former political prisoner incarcerated with Mandela for twenty-six years; The scenes of jubilation, the spontaneous outpouring of celebration following FIFA‘s decision, the solidarity of pride and unity evoked by a sporting event should serve as a shining example to black and white alike‘. 2

Unique Equilibrium in a Dynamic Model of Speculative Attacks

A main challenge of understanding currency crises is explaining their puzzling timing. Most “second generation” currency crisis models are static models with multiple equilibria, and exogenous shifts between equilibria are interpreted as shifts of sentiments on financial markets leading to crises. This article develops a dynamic, continuous time model with a payoff structure similar to second generation models. We derive endogenous conditions under which shifts in sentiment occur over time, characterise them in terms the strategic risk associated with speculation, and provide comparative statics. Moreover, we show that the findings correspond almost exactly to the implications of global game currency crisis models, which are often used for equilibrium selection in the static context.

Rollover Risk, Network Structure and Systemic Financial Crises

The breakdown of short-term funding markets was a key feature of the global financial crisis of 2007/8. Combining insights from the literature on global games and network growth, we develop a simple model that sheds light on how network topology interacts with the funding structure of financial institutions to determine system-wide crises. We show how the arrival of bad news about a financial institution leads others to lose confidence in it and how this, in turn, spreads across the entire interbank network. The rate of system-wide bank failure is rendered endogenous, depending crucially on both the rate at which bad news arrives and on the maturity of debt contracts. The conditions under which the financial system makes a sharp transition from a dense network of credit relations to a sparse network where credit freezes readily occur are characterized. Our results also emphasize the role of hysteresis -- once broken, credit relations take a long time to re-establish as a result of common knowledge of the equilibrium. Our findings speak to the importance of tougher liquidity requirements as a means of reducing systemic risk.

Not just for men: Israeli women who fancy football

This essay deals with the minority participant and spectator in the global game from the perspective of gender. Taking the participatory fandom of the Israeli female spectators as a case study, it argues that the increasing presence of women at football matches has assumed enormous significance in challenging the male hegemony over the game. Albeit being independent and committed fans, the relationship of Israeli women to football is intermediated by the gender effect. The essay interrogates three basic questions relating to female fans: becoming a football fan, fandom as a way of life, and the relative autonomy of behaviour in the stadium. While admitting the fact that women enjoy only relative autonomy in football fandom, it concludes that football no longer remains ‘just for men’ as the game provides autonomous, albeit relative, space for women to assert their identity and commitment in the football stadium.

Regulation of Canadian Capital Markets in the 1990s: The United States in the Driver's Seat

This Article looks at the regulatory techniques that were adopted in a small but developed market, Canada, in response to the increasing integration of the North American economy and internationalization of capital markets. One of the most comprehensive experiments was the Multijurisdictional Disclosure System (MJDS) implemented in Canada and the United States in 1991. Based on principles of reciprocal recognition, the MJDS in fact created greater pressures for harmonization of the two regulatory regimes and, on the Canadian side, prompted regulatory innovations which attempted to keep Canadian markets in the global game.

Decentralized Spectrum Access Amongst Cognitive Radios—An Interacting Multivariate Global Game-Theoretic Approach

This paper studies decentralized dynamic spectrum access using the theory of multivariate global games. We consider a network of cognitive radios (CRs) where each CR obtains noisy multivariate measurements of the quality of several logical channels and needs to decide which channel to access. Assuming the CRs are rational devices, each CR determines which channel to access, based on its expected throughput and Bayesian estimate of the intention of other CRs. We formulate conditions for which the Bayesian Nash equilibrium (BNE) of the resulting global game is monotonically increasing in the quality of the logical channel. This leads to a simple characterization of the competitive optimal behavior of the system as a function of the prior probability distribution of spectrum hole occupancy, channel quality and observation noise. In obtaining the characterization of the BNE, we extend recent results in univariate global games to the multivariate case.

The Optimal Level of Deposit Insurance Coverage

This paper develops a global game model that allows for a rigorous analysis of partial deposit insurance and provides the first comparative statics of the optimal level of deposit coverage. The optimal amount of coverage increases with lower bank liquidity requirements, with a higher precision of depositors’ information, and with a lower relevance of large, uninsured creditors, and it should not be increased in anticipation of an economic downturn. Optimal insurance is higher if there is contagion and lower if banks can assume excessive risk, but interestingly, a high level of coverage may not be optimal even in the absence of moral hazard on the part of banks. The model supports the inauguration of coinsurance provisions and is applied to compare various policies addressing financial fragility. While an optimal lending of last resort policy can outperform deposit insurance, anticipated bailouts are inferior in terms of welfare. Capital requirements are not a substitute for insurance, but mitigate excessive risk taking.

Financial Crises: Theory and Evidence

Financial crises have occurred for many centuries. They are often preceded by a credit boom and a rise in real estate and other asset prices, as in the current crisis. They are also often associated with severe disruption in the real economy. This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on crises. The first explanation of banking crises is that they are a panic. The second is that they are part of the business cycle. Modeling crises as a global game allows the two to be unified. With all the liquidity problems in interbank markets that have occurred during the current crisis, there is a growing literature on this topic. Perhaps the most serious market failure associated with crises is contagion, and there are many papers on this important topic. The relationship between asset price bubbles, particularly in real estate, and crises is discussed at length.

AN EMERGING POWERHOUSE IN EURASIAN GEOPOLITICS : THE SHANGHAI SIX +

The paper is a study of a rather recent regional interstate formation in Asia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Its background and progress is highlighted. With all indications, the organisation has caught the attention of researchers and will continue to occupy the agenda of the 21st century international politics. Bearing in mind the size and weight of its membership within the area it spans, the organisation is set to be a powerhouse to reckon with beyond its regional borders. After its structure is described, what the organisation implies for Russian and Chinese interests is taken up. The Organisation has significant implications for the Central Asian States and the neighboring countries. As an institutional actor in the global game, its regional and global implications are highlighted

Credit Crunches, Collaterals, and Lack of Common Knowledge

Using the global games method, I extend the credit cycles model of Kiyotaki and Moore (1997) in three ways. First, the extended model examines the strategic interactions among monetary authorities, creditors, and an entrepreneur. Second, both creditors and monetary authorities have imperfect information about an entrepreneur's debt as well as the strategic behaviors of other creditors. The strategic behaviors of creditors affect an entrepreneur's collateral value and net worth. This is in contrast to Kiyotaki and Moore's model in which these variables are affected solely by exogenous shocks. Third, monetary authorities play a role in the credit-making decision process in that they can smooth collateral value variability through an optimal interest rate policy. Coordination failures among creditors play though a very important role in the effectiveness of a central bank's attempt to avoid inefficient credit crunches.