Cooperation by indirect revelation through strategic behavior

The paper deals with a one-shot prisoners’ dilemma when the players have an option to go to court but cannot verify their testimonies. To solve the problem a second stage if added to a game. At the first stage the players are involved in the prisoners’ dilemma and at the second stage they play another game in which their actions are verifiable. In such a setup the information about the actions chosen at the prisoner’s dilemma stage can be revealed through strategic behavior of the players during second stage. A mechanism for such revelation in the extended game is described. It provides an existence of a unique sequential equilibrium, which may be obtained by an iterative elimination of dominated strategies and has a number of desirable properties.