Assurance Game

The Assurance Game

Definition

The Assurance Game is “a situation where neither player can provide a sufficient amount of the good if they contribute alone, thus for each player, if the other Defects then she should also Defect, but if the other Cooperates then she would prefer to Cooperate as well." (http://www.spunk.org/texts/misc/sp000161.txt )

More Information

The assurance game is discussed at length by Michael Taylor in his book “The Possibility of Cooperation", Cambridge University Press, 1987

In this essay, defending the possibility of ‘anarchist cooperation’ as a model of society, the author reviews the objections of the classic Prisoner’s Dilemma, arguing that they are superseded in case of repeated re-iteration, see http://www.spunk.org/texts/misc/sp000161.txt

See the related entry on the Prisoner's Dilemma and the Chicken Game.