Course Details

In game theory, a “game” is any interaction in which decisions must be made. Penalty kicks in soccer. Nuclear disarmament. Predator-prey behaviors. Hostage negotiation. Voting coalitions. Auction bidding. Insurance pricing. Cooperative hunting. Fish schooling. Political collusion. Information sharing. And on and on and on.

Game theory is a math toolkit used to analyze games. It’s a way to formalize games, to think about their strategies, their dynamics, and the expected actions of others. Game theory is the study of how we do — and do not — get along.

While many game theory courses focus on the mathematical formalism of games, this course will focus on its applications. Because “games” are found in biology, economics, politics, and philosophy, and because game theory itself is mathematical, this course is interdisciplinary.

In this course, students will:
– learn game theoretic concepts like “actors”, “decisions”, “strategies”, “information”, “payoffs”, “equilibria”, and “rationality”
– learn how to formalize games in extensive and strategic form
– practice formalizing biological, economical, and political games
– learn to solve games (according to the criteria they have decided is most important)
– practice thinking probabilistically, both in games (eg, Bayesian games) and in strategies (eg, mixed equilibria)
– practice the full process of (1) translating real-world problems into math, (2) solving the math, and (3) translating the solution back into real-world strategies
– discuss the assumptions and limitations of the above process
– identify “games” in their own lives, and apply game theory to those games