Global Profits, Local Decisions: Why Global Cooperation Falters in Multi-level Games

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhao, Jinhua, Yu, Xinguo, Ding, Rui, Gu, Cuiling, Wang, Xianjia
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866916951390945280
author Zhao, Jinhua
Yu, Xinguo
Ding, Rui
Gu, Cuiling
Wang, Xianjia
author_facet Zhao, Jinhua
Yu, Xinguo
Ding, Rui
Gu, Cuiling
Wang, Xianjia
contents Global cooperation often falters despite shared objectives, as misaligned interests and unequal incentives undermine collective efforts, such as those in international climate change collaborations. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces a multi-level game-theoretic model to analyze the dynamics of complex interactions within hierarchical systems. The model consists of global, local, and pairwise games, and two strategy types, binary and level-based strategies, are explored under varying parameter conditions. Using computational simulations and numerical analysis, we examine how factors across different levels influence player decisions, game dynamics and population phase transitions during the evolutionary process. Our findings reveal that although the increase of profit rates at local and pairwise games enhances cooperation within the population, the global game exerts minimal influence on player decisions and population states under both strategy settings. Particularly, analytical and simulation results show that, under binary strategies, global profit does not influence localized decision-making of players, while under level-based strategies, players cooperating at the global level are eventually outcompeted due to the evolutionary disadvantage even when global profit is substantial. These insights contribute to a theoretical understanding of cooperation dynamics in multi-level systems and may offer implications for fostering global collaboration on challenges like climate change.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_18398
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Global Profits, Local Decisions: Why Global Cooperation Falters in Multi-level Games
Zhao, Jinhua
Yu, Xinguo
Ding, Rui
Gu, Cuiling
Wang, Xianjia
Computer Science and Game Theory
91A22, 05C57, 91A43
Global cooperation often falters despite shared objectives, as misaligned interests and unequal incentives undermine collective efforts, such as those in international climate change collaborations. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces a multi-level game-theoretic model to analyze the dynamics of complex interactions within hierarchical systems. The model consists of global, local, and pairwise games, and two strategy types, binary and level-based strategies, are explored under varying parameter conditions. Using computational simulations and numerical analysis, we examine how factors across different levels influence player decisions, game dynamics and population phase transitions during the evolutionary process. Our findings reveal that although the increase of profit rates at local and pairwise games enhances cooperation within the population, the global game exerts minimal influence on player decisions and population states under both strategy settings. Particularly, analytical and simulation results show that, under binary strategies, global profit does not influence localized decision-making of players, while under level-based strategies, players cooperating at the global level are eventually outcompeted due to the evolutionary disadvantage even when global profit is substantial. These insights contribute to a theoretical understanding of cooperation dynamics in multi-level systems and may offer implications for fostering global collaboration on challenges like climate change.
title Global Profits, Local Decisions: Why Global Cooperation Falters in Multi-level Games
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
91A22, 05C57, 91A43
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.18398