Patience in repeated bargaining: Revisiting Muthoo (1999)

Authors: Jan Zápal

Journal of Mathematical Economics, Vol. 75, 150-153, March, 2018

The paper shows that Corollary 10.3 in Muthoo's book Bargaining Theory with Applications (Cambridge University Press, 1999) is incorrect and proves that patience increases a player's equilibrium share in repeated bargaining situations. It clarifies why a tempting strategy of proof – replacing terms of an expression by approximations with identical limits, then doing comparative statics or taking limits – is flawed and will yield wrong conclusions in other contexts as well.