An experimental investigation of Colonel Blotto games

This article examines behavior in the two-player, constant-sum Colonel Blotto game with asymmetric resources in which players maximize the expected number of battlefields won. The experimental results support the main qualitative predictions of the theory. In the auction treatment, where winning a b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic theory 2013-04, Vol.52 (3), p.833-861
Main Authors: Chowdhury, Subhasish M., Kovenock, Dan, Sheremeta, Roman M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Auctions
Battlefields
Behavior
Behavioral decision theory
Conflict resolution
Decimals
Economic rent
Economic theory
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Endowment
Equilibrium
Experiments
Forecasts
Game Theory
Games
Guerrillas
Lotteries
Mathematical constants
Microeconomics
Military strategy
Probability
Protocol
Public Finance
Qualitative analysis
R&D
Rent-seeking
Research & development
Research Article
Resource allocation
Return on investment
Social and Behav. Sciences
Stock conversion ratios
Studies
Success
Token money
Video games
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Summary:This article examines behavior in the two-player, constant-sum Colonel Blotto game with asymmetric resources in which players maximize the expected number of battlefields won. The experimental results support the main qualitative predictions of the theory. In the auction treatment, where winning a battlefield is deterministic, disadvantaged players use a "guerilla warfare" strategy that stochastically allocates zero resources to a subset of battlefields. Advantaged players employ a "stochastic complete coverage" strategy, allocating random, but positive, resource levels across the battlefields. In the lottery treatment, where winning a battlefield is probabilistic, both players divide their resources equally across all battlefields. However, we also find interesting behavioral deviations from the theory and discuss their implications.
ISSN:0938-2259
1432-0479
DOI:10.1007/s00199-011-0670-2