Game Theory

Catalog description

Game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction among rational (and irrational) agents. Beyond what we call 'games' in common language, such as chess, poker, soccer, etc., it includes the modeling of conflict among nations, political campaigns, competition among firms, and trading behavior in markets. This course develops the main concepts and tools of game theory with the aim to enable you to read original game-theoretic literature and to prepare you to do research in the field. The course first examines the foundations of game theory, using simple examples familiar from introductory microeconomics classes. Then, we will study how to derive equilibrium predictions for the following situations: 1) Static games of complete information; 2) Dynamic games of complete information; 3) Static games of incomplete information; and 4) Dynamic games of incomplete information.