Books On Game Theory

Sociology Books 2008

Evolutionary Game Theory, Natural Selection, and Darwinian Dynamics (May 23, 2005)
Thomas L. Vincent, Joel S. Brown
Many topics in natural selection are investigated within the context of Darwinian dynamics and evolutionary game theory.
All of life is a game and evolution by natural selection is no exception. The evolutionary game theory developed in this book provides the tools necessary for understanding many of nature's mysteries, including co-evolution, speciation, extinction and the major biological questions regarding fit of form and function, diversity, procession, and the distribution and abundance of life. Mathematics for the evolutionary game are developed based on Darwin's postulates leading to the concept of a fitness generating function (G-function). G-function is a tool that simplifies notation and plays an important role developing Darwinian dynamics that drive natural selection. Natural selection may result in special outcomes such as the evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). An ESS maximum principle is formulated and its graphical representation as an adaptive landscape illuminates concepts such as adaptation, Fisher's Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection, and the nature of life's evolutionary game.

Game Theory and Politics (Paperback) (July 26, 2004)
by Steven J. Brams
In this illuminating and instructive survey, Brams demonstrates both the insights and the pitfalls that can result from applying game theoretic models to the analysis of problems in political science. Using real-life examples, he shows how game theory can explain and elucidate complex political situations, from warfare to presidential vetoes. In these cases and others, game theory’s mathematical structure provides a rigorous, consistent method for formulating, analyzing, and solving strategic problems. Minimal mathematical background is necessary, making this book accessible to a wide audience of students and teachers of politics and the social sciences as well as other readers with a serious interest in politics. 1975 ed. 24 figures.

Game Theory : A Nontechnical Introduction by Morton D. Davis
Fascinating, accessible introduction to enormously important intellectual system with numerous applications to social, economic, political problems. Newly revised edition offers overview of game theory, then lucid coverage of the two-person zero-sum game with equilibrium points; the general, two-person zero-sum game; utility theory; other topics. Problems at start of each chapter. Foreword to First Edition by Oskar Morgenstern. Bibliography.

Game Theory for Applied Economists
by Robert Gibbons
Review
Lucid and detailed introduction to game theory in an explicitly economic context.
This book introduces one of the most powerful tools of modern economics to a wide audience: those who will later construct or consume game-theoretic models. Robert Gibbons addresses scholars in applied fields within economics who want a serious and thorough discussion of game theory but who may have found other works overly abstract. Gibbons emphasizes the economic applications of the theory at least as much as the pure theory itself; formal arguments about abstract games play a minor role. The applications illustrate the process of model building--of translating an informal description of a multi-person decision situation into a formal game-theoretic problem to be analyzed. Also, the variety of applications shows that similar issues arise in different areas of economics, and that the same game-theoretic tools can be applied in each setting. In order to emphasize the broad potential scope of the theory, conventional applications from industrial organization have been largely replaced by applications from labor, macro, and other applied fields in economics. The book covers four classes of games, and four corresponding notions of equilibrium: static games of complete information and Nash equilibrium, dynamic games of complete information and subgame-perfect Nash equilibrium, static games of incomplete information and Bayesian Nash equilibrium, and dynamic games of incomplete information and perfect Bayesian equilibrium.

Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict
by Roger B. Myerson
An Elegant and Deep Treatment.
Reviewer: H. Gintis (Northampton, MA USA)
I just completed a game theory book (Game Theory Evolving, Princeton University Press, 2000). To find the best way to present various materials, I went through virtually every game theory book in existence. For the presentation of the basic material on normal and extensive form games, nothing even came close to this book in clarity of presentation and depth of understanding of the issues. Most textbooks, even highly touted ones that are mathematically challenging, do not even come close, and rarely even present the material in a coherent form at all.
I used to do a lot of carpentry, and I always knew the good carpenters from the run of the mill. The latter talk about how to build stuff. The good ones talked about how you choose, preserve, treat, and sharpen your tools. Myerson is, for game theory, like the good carpenter, and this book is more about the nature of the tools of game theory than their deployment--although it is certainly that, too.
Game theory is the analysis of cooperation as much as conflict, and much, much else as well. So is this book.
Reviewer: Adrian Peralta-Alva (Minneapolis, MN U.S.A)
I found this book very helpful in my first year of the Ph D in Economics. I also have used MasColell and Kreps but Myerson was the only one that actually help me understanding complicated concepts as the always Hard Sequential Equilibrium. It is the only book that covers both, sequential and Perfect equilibrium with examples and solutions so that you understand what is going on. If you are willing to buy a Game Theory book I will definitely go for this one. If that is not enough you should also see that the cost benefit ratio of Myerson's book is undoubtly the best of any other one.
Adrian Peralta. Graduate Student University of Minnesota Economics Department.

An Introduction to Game Theory (August, 2003)
by Martin J. Osborne
The best introduction book that you will love!, October 26, 2004
Reviewer: bookworm (Boston)
I have quite a few game theory books, including the Fudenberg and Tirole, the Gibbons, the Mayerson and the other Osborne book. This one is absolutely the best introductory book you will find. The writing is extremely clear, with no unnecessary math, but with very rigorous treatment of concepts and theorems. The author makes remarkable effort in explaining the stuff, and succeeds beyond my expection in offering intuitions and ideas behind the concepts and theorems. It is a perfect intro-level book, if what you want is the combination of accessibility, rigor, and comprehensiveness.
the best introduction to game theory, December 16, 2003
Reviewer: "luiedu" (Berkeley, CA USA)
Osborne's book is the most complete introduction to game theory available. It's formal but also reader friendly with a lot of examples. It's considerably better than the usual game theory textbooks used in economics (Gibbons, Kreps and others). Simply great!

A Course in Game Theory
by Martin J. Osborne, Ariel Rubinstein
A Course in Game Theory presents the main ideas of game theory at a level suitable for graduate students and advanced undergraduates, emphasizing the theory's foundations and interpretations of its basic concepts. The authors provide precise definitions and full proofs of results, sacrificing generalities and limiting the scope of the material in order to do so. The text is organized in four parts: strategic games, extensive games with perfect information, extensive games with imperfect information, and coalitional games. It includes over 100 exercises.
Martin J. Osborne is Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. Ariel Rubinstein is Professor of Economics at Tel Aviv University.

Game Theory Evolving
by Herbert Gintis
Basic toolkit for the evolutionary study of social behavior. Reviewer: Todd I. Stark "Cellular Wetware plus Books" (Philadelphia, Pa USA).
Herb Gintis is an economist with a strong interest in the assumptions we make about human rationality in our social, political, and economic theories. He has produced a remarkable and deceptively innovative text that could productively be used in a broad range of fields.
The topic of game theory is interesting to many people because it describes interaction between competitors, presumably helping us pick the best strategy if the circumstances are well enough understood. We might wonder whether the circumstances are well enough understood in daily life to apply the methods of game theory to our own choices, since it usually to assume that we are rational competitors trying to maximize our own gain.
Game Theory Evolving addresses this fascinating question not from a theoretical perspective so much as giving the reader the tools for investigating it themselves in two distinct but complementary ways.
First, it provides practical problem-oriented chapters for learning the principles and thinking in terms of game theoretic methods. The problems are not the usual textbook "who cares, anyway ?" type. Rather they are fun and interesting to solve and often lead to direct insights into real situations.
Second, it extends game theory into the realm of evolutionary thinking, so we not only understand strategic action but we get some deeper insight into how our historical needs shaped our behavior and even our thought processes. Game theory may help explain how we learned to cooperate and why under some conditions we tend to punish cheaters and treat people fairly even though it provides no apparent advantage to us.
Disguised as a lowly academic textbook, Game Theory Evolving is actually a basic toolkit, a passport into the remarkable modern study of evolutionary thinking about human nature, through a practical grounding in the mathematical techniques that have the potential to join our understanding of social sciences and biology.
'The first problem-oriented book in Game Theory.' Reviewer: Manuel A Ferreira -
Game Theory has to be taught with a strong enphasis on the developing the problem solving capabilities of the students, Nevertheless, the books you can find out there are very strong in the math and the theory but weak, incomplete, and poor in the problems. This is the first book I could find where the enphasis is made on the problems and on developing the capacities of the reader/student in the field, not just for theoretical purposes, where problems are more than useful, but also in the empirical aplications of game theory. Theory in this book emerges from the problems since all the chapters are developed as problems in themselves. It has also the probably the first extensive treatment in a textbook of evolutionary game theory. Given that this new field has become one of extensive research in the field lately, this becomes a major contribution to the teaching of game theory. And the best part is that is fun to read!

Behavioral Game Theory : Experiments in Strategic Interaction (The Roundtable Series in Behavioral Economics) (February 25, 2003)
by Colin F. Camerer
Review
It is certainly time that a book such as this be published. This volume will be a 'one-stop shop' for learning about behavioral economics and is likely to be adopted in graduate course in behavioral economics (and may even encourage people to offer such a course). The introductory chapter does a good job of explaining the enterprise, behavioral economics, and providing some history and context.
Game theory, the formalized study of strategy, began in the 1940s by asking how emotionless geniuses should play games, but ignored until recently how average people with emotions and limited foresight actually play games. This book marks the first substantial and authoritative effort to close this gap. Colin Camerer, one of the field's leading figures, uses psychological principles and hundreds of experiments to develop mathematical theories of reciprocity, limited strategizing, and learning, which help predict what real people and companies do in strategic situations. Unifying a wealth of information from ongoing studies in strategic behavior, he takes the experimental science of behavioral economics a major step forward. He does so in lucid, friendly prose.
Behavioral game theory has three ingredients that come clearly into focus in this book: mathematical theories of how moral obligation and vengeance affect the way people bargain and trust each other; a theory of how limits in the brain constrain the number of steps of "I think he thinks . . ." reasoning people naturally do; and a theory of how people learn from experience to make better strategic decisions. Strategic interactions that can be explained by behavioral game theory include bargaining, games of bluffing as in sports and poker, strikes, how conventions help coordinate a joint activity, price competition and patent races, and building up reputations for trustworthiness or ruthlessness in business or life.
While there are many books on standard game theory that address the way ideally rational actors operate, Behavioral Game Theory stands alone in blending experimental evidence and psychology in a mathematical theory of normal strategic behavior. It is must reading for anyone who seeks a more complete understanding of strategic thinking, from professional economists to scholars and students of economics, management studies, psychology, political science, anthropology, and biology.

The Survival Game : How Game Theory Explains the Biology of Cooperation and Competition (September 1, 2004)
by David P. Barash
From Publishers Weekly
Game theory attempts to explain the dynamics of life as a series of individual games, each involving specific moves that take place within a strictly delineated set of rules. Depending on whom you ask, it's either a brilliant tool for analyzing the complexities of social life or hopelessly reductionist. Zoologist and professor of psychology Barash (coauthor of The Myth of Monogamy), who emphatically falls into the former camp, proves an apt popularizer of the basics of the field, and his book reads like an introductory seminar led by a friendly professor with a slightly corny sense of humor. Readers who have never heard of the Prisoner's Dilemma or the Game of Chicken will find Barash's explanations accessible, while those who are already familiar with the basics of game theory can appreciate the wealth of historical, biological and hypothetical cases to which he applies its methods, ranging from the Bush administration's foreign policy in the spring of 2003 to the behavior of sponge-dwelling isopods in the Gulf of California. Though persuasive, game theory as laid out here and in other works (the best known being Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene) can often seem harshly rational in its cold calculations of life and death, and Barash himself writes in his conclusion, "[F]or a long time I have really loved game theory, and, for about as long, I've hated it." By the end of this highly readable introduction, readers will understand quite well what he means.--or a long time I have really loved game theory, and, for about as long, I've hated it." By the end of this highly readable introduction, readers will understand quite well what he means.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Barash combines game theory with evolutionary biology, arguing that the strategic choices people make as they go through life [are] encoded in their brains by millions of years of evolution . . . His examples-including farm economics, jungle mating strategies and World War II battlefields-are convincing." -The Washington Post.

Game Theory at Work: How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition (March 13, 2003)
by James D. Miller
Easy-to-Follow Strategies for Using Game Theory to Grab the Upper Hand in Every Business Battle
Game theory--the study of how competitors act, react, and interact in the strategic pursuit of their own self-interest--has become an essential competitive tool in today's business arena. Game Theory at Work provides examples of how businesspeople can use this time-proven approach to successfully meet competitive challenges and, more often than not, claim the upper ground in each battle before it begins.
Game Theory at Work steers clear of the opaque mathematics and pedagogy that so often hamper practitioners of game theory, relying instead on lively case studies and examples to illustrate its remarkable methods in action. Complex yet comprehensible, it provides you with:
Methods for applying game theory to every facet of business
Strategies for instantly improving your position in virtually any negotiation
Game theory techniques to increase the output--and value--of each employee
At its essence, business is a game, albeit a profoundly serious game that must always be played to win. Game Theory at Work is the first plain-English examination of the use of game theory in business. Let it provide you with the intellectual tools you need to instantly understand every game you're playing, use that knowledge to your advantage, and consistently maximize your finish-line payoff.
"Game Theory at Work won't teach you about power-chants, discuss the importance of balancing work and family, or inspire you to become a more caring leader. This book will instead help you out-strategize, or at least keep up with, competitors inside and outside your company."--From the Introduction
Like Sun Tzu's timeless The Art of War, Game Theory at Work is about knowing your adversary as well as yourself. It is also about using that knowledge to prepare yourself for victory.
But above all, this one-of-a-kind book is about dramatically improving your strategic instincts and decision-making skills--and emerging victorious--in virtually any business encounter.
Introduced by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern in their 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, and further honed through the decades by thought leaders including Nobel Prize winner John Nash, game theory analyzes strategic interactions in which the outcomes of various choices depend on the choices of others. Game Theory at Work applies this innovative tool to the world of business, and provides a step-by-step framework for using game theory to improve your on-the-job success in areas including:
Negotiating
Managing
Pricing
Positioning
Establishing strategic alliances
More than that, however, Game Theory at Work is a one-of-a-kind tool to battle the high costs of indecision. It shows you how to enter any encounter confident in how others will act, and then use game theory to base your strategies and actions on this knowledge. Case studies, puzzles, and, yes, games demonstrate why unexpected and often paradoxical results are the norm when humans compete, and help you use this fact to your advantage. And, chapter-ending lessons highlight essential rules learned.
... All in a book that is both absorbing and entertaining, designed to improve your business instincts without requiring the use of needless mathematics or theoretical mumbo-jumbo.
Everything in life is competitive in one way or another, and game theory has revolutionized the art and science of what to look for--and how to act--when engaged in competition. Game Theory at Work studies the use of game theory in today's hard-fought business arena, and shows you how to use it to gain maximum advantage in every professional encounter, whatever your role in that encounter.

Classics in Game Theory
by Harold William Kuhn (Editor)
Review
This volume assembles in one sourcebook the basic contributions to the field [of game theory]. . .
Classics in Game Theory assembles in one sourcebook the basic contributions to the field that followed on the publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern (Princeton, 1944). The theory of games, first given a rigorous formulation by von Neumann in a in 1928, is a subfield of mathematics and economics that models situations in which individuals compete and cooperate with each other. In the "heroic era" of research that began in the late 1940s, the foundations of the current theory were laid; it is these fundamental contributions that are collected in this volume. In the last fifteen years, game theory has become the dominant model in economic theory and has made significant contributions to political science, biology, and international security studies. The central role of game theory in economic theory was recognized by the award of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1994 to the pioneering game theorists John C. Harsanyi, John Nash, and Reinhard Selten. The fundamental works for which they were honored are all included in this volume.
Harold Kuhn, himself a major contributor to game theory for his reformulation of extensive games, has chosen eighteen essays that constitute the core of game theory as it exists today. Drawn from a variety of sources, they will be an invaluable tool for researchers in game theory and for a broad group of students of economics, political science, and biology.

Game Theory and the Social Contract, Vol. 1: Playing Fair
by Ken Binmore
In Game Theory and the Social Contract, Ken Binmore argues that game theory provides a systematic tool for investigating ethical matters. His reinterpretation of classical social contract ideas within a game-theoretic framework generates new insights into the fundamental questions of social philosophy. He clears the way for this ambitious endeavor by first focusing on foundational issues -- paying particular attention to the failings of recent attempts to import game -- theoretic ideas into social and political philosophy.
Binmore shows how ideas drawn from the classic expositions of Harsanyi and Rawls produce a synthesis that is consistent with the modern theory of noncooperative games. In the process, he notes logical weaknesses in other analyses of social cooperation and coordination, such as those offered by Rousseau, Kant, Gauthier, and Nozick. He persuasively argues that much of the current literature elaborates a faulty analysis of an irrelevant game.
Game Theory and the Social Contract makes game-theoretic ideas more widely accessible to those with only a limited knowledge of the field. Instructional material is woven into the narrative, which is illustrated with many simple examples, and the mathematical content has been reduced to a minimum.
Ken Binmore is Professor of Economics at University College, London. His previous books include Economic Organizations as Games, The Economics of Bargaining, Essays on the Foundations of Game Theory, and Fun and Games, an undergraduate textbook on game theory.

Game Theory and the Law
by Douglas G. Baird, Robert H. Gertner, Randal C. Picker
A pathbreaking work of importance and clarity, April 30, 1998
Reviewer: A reader
This book popularizes and extends a new approach (non-cooperative game theory) to the economic analysis of law. Readable and concise, this book is a must for students and scholars wishing to understand the ways in which legal rules can be usefully modeled as non-cooperative games. As a professor in the discipline, I am awed by the important and brilliant scholarship presented in this book with superb skill.
Great analysis of common strategic behavior problems, December 26, 2001
Reviewer: A reader
This is a great example of how the rigor of game theory can give startling insights into outcomes of common situations. Although I'm no mathematician or economist, all business people are at some point required to base their decisions on how they think others will behave. This book provides some great frameworks for structuring that thought process.

Advances in Understanding Strategic Behaviour : Game Theory, Experiments and Bounded Rationality (January 15, 2005)
by Steffen Huck (Editor)
This volume contains sixteen original articles documenting recent progress in understanding strategic behavior. In their variety they reflect an entire spectrum of coexisting approaches: from orthodox game theory via behavioral game theory, bounded rationality and economic psychology to experimental economics. There are plenty of new models and insights but the book also illustrates the boundaries of what we know today and explains the frontiers of tomorrow.

Models in Cooperative Game Theory : Crisp, Fuzzy, and Multi-Choice Games (Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems) (September 1, 2005)
by Rodica Branzei, Dinko Dimitrov, Stef Tijs
This book investigates models in cooperative game theory in which the players have the possibility to cooperate partially. In a crisp game the agents are either fully involved or not involved at all in coperation with some other agents, while in a fuzzy game players are allowed to cooperate with infinite many different participation levels, varying from non-cooperation to full cooperation. A multi-choice game describes the intermediate case in which each player may have a fixed number of activity levels. Different set and one-point solution concepts for these games are presented. The properties of these solution concepts and their interrelations on several classes of crisp, fuzzy, and multi-choice games are studied. Applications of the investigated models to many economic situations are indicated as well.

Introducing Game Theory and its Applications (June 28, 2004)
by Elliot Mendelson
The first text to present a simple, intelligent guide to game theory, this book introduces concepts from areas such as economics using applications, game theoretic notions, and research results. The author presents game theory in an intelligible manner for those who do not have a strong background in the field of business or economics. Unlike other textbooks currently on the market that presuppose a knowledge of economics or finance, this book contains a broad base of applications that appeal to a broader audience but requires a minimal background in calculus, probability, and linear algebra. It contains a review the material on probability that readers need prior to taking a course on game theory.

Gaming the Market : Applying Game Theory to Create Winning Trading Strategies (Wiley Finance)
by Ronald B. Shelton
Gaming the Market: Applying Game Theory to Create Winning Trading Strategies is the first book to show investors how game theory is applicable to decisions about buying and selling stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures, and options. As a practical trading guide, Gaming the Market will help investors master this revolutionary approach, and employ it to their advantage.
Although game theory has been studied since the 1940s, it has only recently been applied to the world of finance. Game theory champions garnered the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics, and, today, this theory is used to analyze everything from the baseball strike to FCC auctions. Increasingly, game theory is making its mark as a potent tool for traders. In Gaming the Market, economist Ronald B. Shelton provides a model that enables traders to predict profitability and, as a result, make effective buy and sell decisions.
Stated simply, game theory is the study of conflict based on a formal approach to decision making that views decisions as choices made in a game. Whether playing individually or in a group, each player in a conflict has more than one course of action available to him, and the outcome of the "game" depends on the interaction of the strategies pursued by each. Shelton offers real-world examples that reveal how the principles of game theory drive financial markets —and how these same principles can be used to develop winning investment strategies. Through Shelton's organized and precise explanations—he uses familiar games such as chess and checkers to illustrate his points —readers gain a solid understanding of the key principles of game theory before applying them to actual financial market situations.
Gaming the Market examines the interaction between price fluctuations and risk acceptance levels and gradually constructs a game theory model which proves that there are probability-based formulas for determining the profitability of any given trade.
With appendixes on T-Bond futures, mathematical representations of the model, and QuickBasic code for calculating relative frequencies, Gaming the Market provides a thorough overview of the rules and strategies of game theory. This indispensable reference will prove invaluable to novice and seasoned players alike.
Are the markets a game? What are the rules? Who are the players?
How can you, as a player, come up with a winning strategy?
Now, acclaimed economist Ronald B. Shelton shows you how to master the power of game theory in the first trader's guide to this revolutionary approach to investment decisions!
"It's not often that a refreshingly new idea appears in the field of trading strategies or risk management, but Ronald B. Shelton has taken pieces from game theory and betting strategies and transformed them into a new, visual way to make trading decisions. . . . He has been able to put a value on trading situations which can increase your ability to manage risk as well as clarify expectations —both essential ingredients for success." —from the Foreword by Perry Kaufman author of The New Commodity Trading Systems and Methods.
"Gaming the Market is a very welcome and most useful new guide to playing profitably in the biggest and most complex game ever devised — speculating in the financial markets. Investors and traders who study this book will gain valuable insights into the real nature of the markets and will learn how to play the game to win." —Thomas A. Bierovic, President, Synergy Futures.
"Ronald B. Shelton has extended the field of excursion analysis with an innovative and provocative book that is sure to be widely read—and controversial. By examining the actual distributions of price excursion, he shows a technique to estimate your odds going in on a new position, and within the context of game theory, how to evaluate those chances. All traders and analysts seeking objective bases for trading will want to read this book." —John Sweeney, Technical Editor, Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine.
In Gaming the Market, economist Ronald B. Shelton provides a model that enables traders to predict profitability and, as a result, make effective buy and sell decisions. Stated simply, game theory is the study of conflict based on a formal approach to decision making that views decisions as choices made in a game. Whether playing individually or in a group, each player in a conflict has more than one course of action available to him, and the outcome of the "game" depends on the interaction of the strategies pursued by each. Shelton offers real-world examples that reveal how the principles of game theory drive financial markets - and how these same principles can be used to develop winning investment strategies. Through Shelton's organized and precise explanations - he uses familiar games such as chess and checkers to illustrate his points - readers gain a solid understanding of the key principles of game theory before applying them to actual financial market situations. Gaming the Market examines the interaction between price fluctuations and risk acceptance levels and gradually constructs a game theory model which proves that there are probability-based formulas for determining the profitability of any given trade.

Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications Volume 3 (Handbooks in Economics)
by R. J. Aumann, S. Hart
Journal of Economic Literature
Vol. 3 of a three-volume set surveying the state of the art in game theory.
Review
This is the third volume of the Handbook of Game Theory with Economic Applications. ...The authors are the most eminent practitioners in the field, including three Nobel Prinze winners. Zentralblatt fur Mathematik, vol. 993, 2002 ...Volume 3 of a three-volume set surveying the state of the art in game theory. Journal of Economic Literature ...No one can keep up with the whole literature, so we have come to recognize these volumes as immensely valuable. They are on almost everyone's shelf. ...I would love to see volumes 4, 5, and 6, with more of what Aumann and Hart and their authors have given us. The Handbook has become the first reference for anyone who wants to learn of game-theoretical results outside their own area. It has been a long task for the editors but has greatly benefited the rest of us, and we are all grateful. Games and Economic Behavior, Vol. 46, no.1

Game Theory: A Critical Text (Paperback) (April 15, 2004)
by Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap, Yanis Varoufakis
The ideal primer for those deterred by the technical nature of many textbooks, this title provides a clear explanation for the enduring popularity of game theory and its increasing centrality to the teaching of economics.
Shaun Hargreaves-Heap is Professor of Economics at the University of East Anglia, UK.
Yanis Varoufakis is Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Sydney.

Game Theory and Economic Analysis (Routledge Advances in Game Theory) (Hardcover) (September 1, 2003)
by Christian Schmidt (Editor)
This book presents the huge variety of current contributions of game theory to economics. The impressive contributions fall broadly into two categories. Some lay out in a jargon free manner a particular branch of the theory, the evolution of one of its concepts, or a problem, that runs through its development. Others are original pieces of work that are significant to game theory as a whole. After taking the reader through a concise history of game theory, the contributions include such themes as: *the connections between Von Neumann's mathematical game theory and the domain assigned to him today *the strategic use of information by game players *the problem of the coordination of strategic choices between independent players *cooperative games and their place within the literature of games new developments in non-cooperative games *possible applications for game theory in industrial and financial economics differential qualitative games and entry dissuasion.

A Game Theory Analysis of Options: Contributions to the Theory of Financial Intermediation in Continuous Time (July 15, 1999)
by Alexandre Ziegler
This book presents a method that combines game theory and option pricing in order to analyze dynamic multiperson decision problems in continuous time and under uncertainty. The basic intuition of the method is to separate the problem of the valuation of payoffs from the analysis of strategic interactions. Whereas the former is to be handled using option pricing, the latter can be addressed by game theory. The text shows how both instruments can be combined and how game theory can be applied to complex problems of corporate finance and financial intermediation. Besides providing theoretical foundations and serving as a guide to stochastic game theory modeling in continuous time, the text contains numerous examples from the theory of corporate finance and financial intermediation. By combining arbitrage-free valuation techniques with strategic analysis, the game theory analysis of options actually provides the link between markets and organizations.
Discusses Game Theory, and von Newmann's 1928 proof of the minimax theorem. Presents a method combining instruments of economic theory to facilitate the analysis of dynamic multiperson decision problems. Softcover. DLC: Options (Finance)--Prices--Mathematical models.

Decision Making using Game Theory : An Introduction for Managers (March 27, 2003)
by Anthony Kelly
Game theory is a key element in most decision making processes involving two or more people or organizations. This book explains how game theory can predict the outcome of complex decision making processes, and how it can help to improve negotiation and decision-making skills. It is grounded in well-established theory, yet the wide-ranging international examples used to illustrate its application offer a fresh approach to what is becoming an essential weapon in the armory of the informed manager. The book is accessibly written, explaining in simple terms the underlying mathematics behind games of skill. It analyzes more sophisticated topics such as zero-sum games, mixed-motive games, and multi-person games, coalitions and power. Clear examples and helpful diagrams are used throughout, and the mathematics is kept to a minimum. Written for managers, students and decision-makers in every field.
Text explains how game theory can predict the outcome of complex decision-making processes, and how it can help improve negotiation and decision-making skills. For managers, students, and decision-makers in any field.

Zero-sum games (Teaching & research materials) Thomas C Schelling (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics)

Prospectus for a reorientation of game theory (P-1491) Thomas C Schelling (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics)

The reciprocal fear of surprise attack (P-1342)
Thomas C Schelling (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics)

Collected Papers, Vol. 1 (Feb. 18, 2000) by Robert J. Aumann
Robert Aumann's groundbreaking career in game theory has spanned over 35 years. These two volumes provide convenient access to all of his major research--from his doctoral dissertation in 1956 to papers as recent as January 1995. Threaded through all of Aumann's work (symbolized in his thesis on knots) is the study of relationships between different ideas, between different phenomena, and between ideas and phenomena. "When you look closely at one scientific idea," writes Aumann, "you find it hitched to all others. It is these hitches that I have tried to study."
The papers are organized in several categories: general, knot theory, decision theory (utility and subjective probability), strategic games, coalitional games, and mathematical methods. Aumann has written an introduction to each of these groups that briefly describes the content and background of each paper, including the motivation and the research process, and relates it to other work in the collection and to work by others. There is also a citation index that allows readers to trace the considerable body of literature which cites Aumann's own work.
Robert J. Aumann (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics) is Professor of Mathematics and a member of the Center for Rationality and Interactive Decision Theory, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Repeated Games with Incomplete Information
by Robert J. Aumann
During the height of the Cold War, between 1965 and 1968, Robert Aumann, Michael Maschler, and Richard Stearns collaborated on research on the dynamics of arms control negotiations that has since become foundational to work on repeated games. These five seminal papers are collected here for the first time, with the addition of "postscripts" describing many of the developments since the papers were written. The basic model studied throughout the book is one in which players ignorant about the game being played must learn what they can from the actions of the others.
The original work, done under contract to the United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, was intended to tackle the gradual disarmament problem, in which neither player knew what his own payoff would be for any given agreement, because of uncertainty about the other side's arsenal and weapons production technology. But the research soon became much more generalized, covering information concealment and revelation, signaling and learning, and related ideas in any repeated competitive situation.
The first four chapters of the book treat the competitive zero-sum side of the theory of repeated games. Chapter five takes up cooperative phenomena where one player may want to signal information to another. An extensive bibliography covers all items mentioned in the main text, in the postscripts, and in the introduction. The bibliography also includes a compilation of published papers and books that refer to the original reports.
About the Author
Robert J. Aumann (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics) and Michael Maschler are both professors of mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Richard Stearns is professor of computer science at the State University of New York at Albany.

Topics in Mathematical Economics in Game Theory: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Aumann (Fields Institute Communications, V. 23.)
by Myrna H. Wooders (Editor)
Since the publication of Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by von Neumann and Morgenstern, the concept of games has played an increasing role in economics. It also plays a role of growing importance in other sciences, including biology, political science, and psychology. Many scientists have made seminal advances and continue to be leaders in the field, including Harsanyi, Shapley, Shubik, and Selten. Professor Robert Aumann (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics), in addition to his important contributions to game theory and economics, made a number of significant contributions to mathematics.
This volume provides a collection of essays in mathematical economics and game theory, including cutting-edge research on noncooperative game theory and its foundations, bargaining theory, and general equilibrium theory. Also included is a reprint of Aumann's classic paper, "Acceptable Points in General Cooperative $n$-Person Games" and of the oft-cited, yet hard to find, paper by Maschler, "The Worth of a Cooperative Enterprise to Each Member". This book illustrates the wide range of applications of mathematics to economics, game theory, and social choice.
The volume is dedicated to Professor Robert J. Aumann (Nobel Laureate 2005 for Economics), Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, for his contributions in mathematics and social sciences.

Game Theory for Political Scientists
by James D. Morrow
Review
James Morrow's superb book provides the best account of ideas from game theory tailored to the interests of political scientists, which is currently available.
Game theory is the mathematical analysis of strategic interaction. In the fifty years since the appearance of von Neumann and Morgenstern's classic Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (Princeton, 1944), game theory has been widely applied to problems in economics. Until recently, however, its usefulness in political science has been underappreciated, in part because of the technical difficulty of the methods developed by economists. James Morrow's book is the first to provide a standard text adapting contemporary game theory to political analysis. It uses a minimum of mathematics to teach the essentials of game theory and contains problems and their solutions suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in all branches of political science.
Morrow begins with classical utility and game theory and ends with current research on repeated games and games of incomplete information. The book focuses on noncooperative game theory and its application to international relations, political economy, and American and comparative politics. Special attention is given to models of four topics: bargaining, legislative voting rules, voting in mass elections, and deterrence. An appendix reviews relevant mathematical techniques. Brief bibliographic essays at the end of each chapter suggest further readings, graded according to difficulty. This rigorous but accessible introduction to game theory will be of use not only to political scientists but also to psychologists, sociologists, and others in the social sciences.

Game Theory with Economic Applications (2nd Edition)
by H. Scott Bierman, Luis Fernandez
Emphasizes the application of game theoretical tools to understand important economic phenomena. Covers applications in the fields of labor economics, international trade, environmental economics, industrial organizations and more. Paper. DLC: Game theory.

Decision Analysis, Game Theory, and Information (University Casebook Series) (August, 2004)
by Louis Kaplow, Steven Shavell
"Decision Analysis, Game Theory, and Information" is a spin-off title from a new casebook written by a team of Harvard Law professors, "Analytical Methods for Lawyers," which was written to provide law students with an overview of basic business and finance principles necessary for the study of law.
This work focuses on the theories of Decision Analysis, including decision trees and probabilities, as well as Games and Information, with chapters on game theory, moral hazard and incentives, and more.
Louis Kaplow is the Finn M.W. Caspersen and Household International Professor of Law and Economics at Harvard Law School and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Steven Shavell is the Samuel R. Rosenthal Professor of Law and Economics, Director of the John M. Olin Center for Law, Economics, and Business at Harvard Law School, as well as Co-Director of the Law and Economics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Game Theory and Strategy (New Mathematical Library)
by Philip D. Straffin
Mathematical Reviews
Exercises at the end of each chapter (with answers provided in the back) and a list of references invite the reader to get actively involved. Special care has been taken in presenting interesting and diverse applications: among other things, Newcomb's problem and free will as an application to philosophy. The author has succeeded in producing an outstanding introductory textbook on game theory for an interdisciplinary audience at the college level. The reviewer has enjoyed reading it.
Review
'Game Theory and Strategy is an elegant, crystal-clear expository work. Key concepts are emphasized and clearly explained.' Nature.