Game Theory with Professor Ben Polak

This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere.

  1. Introduction: five first lessons

  2. Putting yourselves into other people's shoes

  3. Iterative deletion and the median-voter theorem

  4. Best responses in soccer and business partnerships

  5. Nash equilibrium: bad fashion and bank runs

  6. Nash equilibrium: dating and Cournot

  7. Nash equilibrium: shopping, standing and voting on a line

  8. Nash equilibrium: location, segregation and randomization

  9. Mixed strategies in theory and tennis

  10. Mixed strategies in baseball, dating and paying your taxes

  11. Evolutionary stability: cooperation, mutation, and equilibrium

  12. Evolutionary stability: social convention, aggression, and cycles

  13. Sequential games: moral hazard, incentives, and hungry lions

  14. Backward induction: commitment, spies, and first-mover advantages

  15. Backward induction: chess, strategies, and credible threats

  16. Backward induction: reputation and duels

  17. Backward induction: ultimatums and bargaining

  18. Imperfect information: information sets and sub-game perfection

  19. Subgame perfect equilibrium: matchmaking and strategic investments

  20. Subgame perfect equilibrium: wars of attrition

  21. Repeated games: cooperation vs. the end game

  22. Repeated games: cheating, punishment, and outsourcing

  23. Asymmetric information: silence, signaling and suffering education

  24. Asymmetric information: auctions and the winner's curse