Game theory and strategic decisions

Summary

Game theory studies the strategic interactions between rational agents. It has a myriad of applications in politics, business, sports. A special branch of Game Theory, Auction Theory, has recently guided the development of Ebay, Google advertising auctions, and of the Wireless spectrum auctions.

Content

Keywords

Games, Auctions, Nash equilibrium, cooperation

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

none

Recommended courses

none

Important concepts to start the course

none

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Compute the Nash equilibria of simple games in normal form
• Compute the Nash equilibria of simple games in extensive form and be able to determine which of these equilibria are subgame perfect
• Compute mixed-strategy equilibria of simple games.
• Analyze first and second-price auctions.
• Model how a cooperative equilibrium can be sustained with infinitely-repeated games.
• Compute the fixed point of optimal best responses.
• Model real-life situations as games and find the equilibria.
• Solve dynamic games through backward induction.

Transversal skills

• Plan and carry out activities in a way which makes optimal use of available time and other resources.
• Use a work methodology appropriate to the task.
• Continue to work through difficulties or initial failure to find optimal solutions.

Teaching methods

Lectures; homeworks; case studies.

Expected student activities

Attend lectures;Complete homeworks in groups; Participate in class

Assessment methods

Assignments, completed in groups during the semester. Assignments may be qualitative, quantitative, or real-word case studies

Supervision

Resources

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

No

Notes/Handbook

Lecture notes will be provided for each lecture.

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/MGT-300