On November 28th Francesco Feri from the Royal Holloway University of London will give a seminar on "An Experimental Study on the Effects of Communication, Credibility, and Clustering in Network Games"
Room A, building B, from 12am to 1pm

An Experimental Study on the Effects of Communication, Credibility, and Clustering in Network Games

Gary Charness, Francesco Feri, Miguel A. Meléndez-Jiménez, and Matthias Sutter

Abstract
We examine how pre-play communication and clustering affect play in a challenging hybrid experimental game on networks. Free-form chat is enormously effective in achieving the non-equilibrium efficient outcome, but restricted communication is almost entirely ineffective. We support this result with a model about the credibility of cheap-talk messages. We provide a model of message diffusion, which correctly predicts that diffusion will be more rapid without clustering. We also show an interaction effect of network structure and communication technologies. A remarkable result is that restricted communication is quite effective in a network Stag Hunt, but not in our extended game.