Cheating on Your Spouse: A Game-Theoretic Analysis

Theoretical Economics Letters, Vol. 7, pp. 79-85, 2017

Posted: 25 Jan 2017

See all articles by Amitrajeet A. Batabyal

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal

Rochester Institute of Technology

Hamid Beladi

University of Texas at San Antonio - College of Business - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 24, 2017

Abstract

In this note we analyze a game of marital infidelity. The husband can either be faithful to or cheat on his wife. The wife can either monitor or not monitor her husband. We first determine the best response correspondences of the two players. Second, we explain why there is no pure-strategy Nash equilibrium in the game under study. Third, we show that there exists a unique mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium in the game. Finally, we demonstrate the nexus between our marital infidelity game and the prominent Matching Pennies game.

Keywords: Cheating; Faithfulness; Monitoring; Mixed-Strategy; Static Game

JEL Classification: J12; D81; C72

Suggested Citation

Batabyal, Amitrajeet A. and Beladi, Hamid, Cheating on Your Spouse: A Game-Theoretic Analysis (January 24, 2017). Theoretical Economics Letters, Vol. 7, pp. 79-85, 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905311

Amitrajeet A. Batabyal (Contact Author)

Rochester Institute of Technology ( email )

Department of Economics, RIT
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Hamid Beladi

University of Texas at San Antonio - College of Business - Department of Economics ( email )

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San Antonio, TX 78249
United States
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210-458-7040 (Fax)

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