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.

Topics likely covered:

• payoffs, utility, moves, strategies
• nash equilibria, probabilistic strategies
• prisoners dilemma
• signaling
• credibility and non-credible threats
• risk management
• cultural conventions
• auction theory
• voting systems
• power & coalitions
• fair devision and envy
• two-sided matching
• decision heuristics