Cognition and Spatial Dispersion Games : An Exploratory Analysis

Spatial dispersion games in which agents coordinate on distinct actions are extensively used in industrial organization and other economic settings, from classic models of product differentiation to trade expansion and contract enforcement. Recent theory has addressed the problem of agent unawareness of particular events (i.e., agents do not know that they do not know) and how to formally represent unawareness. We experimentally investigate spatial dispersion games when cognition plays an important role in determining the outcomes of such games. Beyond the importance of these games, themselves, our motivation is to learn whether insights from matching games extend to dispersion games. Cognition and Spatial Dispersion Games: An Exploratory Analysis