Econ 414
Game Theory [Syllabus]
Professor Peter Cramton
Wouldn’t life be simple if, in making decisions, we could ignore the interests and actions of others? Simple yes–but boring too. The fact remains that most real-world decisions are not made in isolation, but involve interaction with others. This course studies the competitive and cooperative behavior that results when several parties with conflicting interests must work together. We will learn how to use game theory to formally study situations of potential conflict: situations where the eventual outcome depends not just on your decision and chance, but the actions of others as well. Applications are drawn from economics, business, and political science. Typically there will be no clear cut “answers” to these problems (unlike most single-person decisions). Our analysis can only suggest what issues are important and provide guidelines for appropriate behavior in certain situations.
Course Materials
(Chapter references are to Martin J. Osborne, An Introduction to Game Theory.)
Web exercises (Web Sets) can be found at https://arielrubinstein.org/gt/student/. Your user name is CR479U<email>, where <email> is your email address (e.g., CR479Ustudent@email.com). The class password is e139288Zt. It is case sensitive.
Slides | Web Sets/Problem Sets/Exams |
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