This course has ended
Log in to see additional content

Schedule

Log in to see additional content
Section L0101 meets R10-12 in UC140. The tutorial session for this section meets F1-2 in SS2118.

Section L0201 meets R2-4 in UC140. The tutorial session for this section meets F2-3 in LM159.

There will be an extra tutorial session, for both sections, on Friday December 6 from 1:10 to 3pm in KP 108. This session will cover Problem Set 12. Time permitting, Erhao will also answer questions about problems on previous problem sets.

In the following (tentative) schedule, IGT refers to my book An introduction to game theory.

I will post slides for each class by the morning of the day of the class. The compact versions are best for printing, the complete ones best for viewing on a screen.

Week 1
Strategic games and Nash equilibrium (IGT Chapter 1 and 2.1–2.7).
Week 2
Competition between firms: the models of Bertrand and Cournot (IGT 3.2 and 3.1). Using best response functions to find Nash equilibria in general games (IGT 2.8)
Week 3
Electoral competition (IGT 3.3).
Week 4
Mixed strategy Nash equilibrium (IGT 4.1–4.3 and 4.5).
Week 5
Applications of mixed strategy Nash equilibrium: expert diagnosis and the volunteer's dilemma (IGT 4.6 and 4.8). Implications of rationality and beliefs about others' rationality; strict domination (IGT 2.9.1).
Week 6
Implications of rationality: strict domination. Never-best responses. Iterated elimination of strictly dominated actions. Weak domination. (IGT 2.9; see also 12.2 and 12.3, although the treatment there is more advanced than the one in class.)
Week 7
Voting (IGT 2.9.3); committee decision-making (IGT 2.9.4); voting with imperfect information and the "swing voter's curse"; juries (IGT 9.7).
Week 8
Auctions: private value sealed-bid auctions under first- and second-price rules; common value auctions (IGT 9.6).
Week 9
Extensive games: subgame perfect equilibrium (IGT 5.1-5.5).
Week 10
Extensive games: Stackelberg duopoly; ultimatum and holdup games (IGT 6.1, 6.2).
Week 11
Repeated games and collusion (IGT 14.1-14.12).
Week 12
The core, matching, and the deferred acceptance algorithm (IGT 8.1, 8.2, and 8.7)