Is climate change a prisoner’s dilemma?
http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2016/04/climate-change-game-theory-models/479340/
The linked article is a very interesting take on climate change. It is a part of a continuous series of articles trying to model climate change and the decisions made by important participants in climate change using game theory. For instance, it models the United States and China as two important players in climate change, making a choice between choosing to exploit resources or choosing to conserve environment. In the model, the assumption is that choosing to conserve the environment is more expensive, hence, the payoff is low (at least right now when there are no immediate consequences to exploiting resources)
The article comes to the conclusion that, in the beginning of climate change (right now), when there are few signs of environmental damage, and there are huge payoffs to be earned by exploiting resources to the fullest, the game looks like a prisoner’s dilemma where both parties want to defect. However, as the effects of climate change become more and more visible, the game will soon start to look like a ‘stag hunt’.
The article uses many of the game theory concepts introduced in Networks. We are modeling a situation using players, their responses to each others strategies and some basic assumptions about how the game works. Using the payoffs we expect, we are trying to predict what each player (the U.S. and China in this case) will do. It is interesting that even extremely important policy issues like climate change can be modeled as a game! The article concludes that currently the climate change game looks like a prisoner’s dilemma! (Which we learned in class as a game where each player has a dominant strategy)