Question

1c. Explain what a dominated strategy is, and what a dominant strategy is?

Answer 1

What is a dominant strategy

A dominant strategy is a strategy that is better than all the alternative strategies that a player can pick, regardless of which moves their opponents make. This means that, in a given game, a player’s dominant strategy is the best strategy that they can choose from a strategic perspective, since it’s the one that will lead to the greatest payoff for them.

There are two types of dominant strategies: strictly dominant strategiesand weakly dominant strategies:

• A strategy is strictly dominant if choosing it always gives a betteroutcome than choosing an alternative strategy, regardless of which moves other players make.
• A strategy is weakly dominant if choosing it always gives an outcome that is as good as or better than choosing an alternative strategy

What is a dominated strategy.

A dominated strategy is a strategy that is worse than all the alternative strategies that a player can pick, regardless of which moves their opponents make. This means that, in a given game, a player’s dominated strategy is the worst strategy that they can choose from a strategic perspective, since it’s the one that will lead to the worst payoff for them.

There are two types of dominated strategies: strictly dominated strategiesand weakly dominated strategies:

• A strategy is strictly dominated if choosing it always gives a worseoutcome than choosing an alternative strategy, regardless of which moves other players make.
• A strategy is weakly dominated if choosing it always gives an outcome that is as good as or worse than choosing an alternative strategy.