General Info About Econ 223
What is game theory? | Why student's like this course
What is introductory game theory all about?
Econ 223
is a multi-disciplinarycourse
at the University of Canterbury. Although the course is taught
in the Economics Department , no economics prerequisites are
necessary. Basically anyone who has completed first year at UC can do
this course. Moreover, any student who is serious about a well rounded
intellectual education in Arts, Science, Law, Commerce, Engineering,
Forestry, or Education should consider
doing this course. It'll be points in
your degree
that will be well spent.
Game theory is the science that studies strategic interaction. Strategic interaction is all about the interplay of competition and cooperation between rational, intelligent agents. Everyone acts strategically, whether the "game" involves high flying international business and politics or down home, nitty-gritty "games" in families, flatting arrangements, schools, sporting contests , the workplace, or in an ecological niche. But few learn the principles of good strategic interaction. This course is designed to help you do just that. You'll learn:
- how to sensibly think through the strategic moves of other players in order to predict the likely outcomes of the many competitive and cooperative games you play in your life, and so avoid simple errors of strategic reasoning
- when to expect cooperative behaviour from others -and when not to; as well as how to "change" games to facilitate cooperation when cooperation is good (eg getting rid of pollution) and inhibit cooperation when it is bad (eg preventing monopolistic exploitation)
- when to randomize actions to keep your opponents guessing, and how to do it in ways that your opponents can't see through (playing tennis or dealing with random audits of the IRD)
- when to seek out methods of coordination that will lead to desirable, or at least not undesirable, "solutions" to games where failures of coordination can be very costly, if not deadly;
- how to credibly make commitments (promises or threats) that will facilitate good outcomes for you, and possibly others, and how to see through self serving promises and threats of others that lack credibility
- how to use brinkmanship , the gradual escalation of risk in a strategic situation, to your advantage...and how to counter brinkmanship by others
- how imperfect signals (like education qualifications or warranties) can be used to provide or conceal useful information about your competitors or fellow cooperators, when you might not fully trust their self reported information : ie when actions speak louder than words
- how to think about bargaining, bidding, and voting...strategically
This course will provide you with insights into strategic interaction from three perspectives:
- as a player trying to do the best for yourself,
- as a researcher trying to understand and predict the outcomes of strategic interaction, and
- as a strategic planner/engineer trying to tinker with complex situations of strategic interaction to "improve" outcomes for participating agents.
- it's interesting, and even fun, to attend lectures (lots of on hands on experiments and in-class activities -with prizes/rewards for participating - usually chocolate bars) ; students learn better when the lecture time is "alive" and motivation is high
- the concepts fit in well with many other courses/disciplines dealing with human social behaviour . Especially when writing an essay, report, or presentation, in soci, psych, law, mangament, history, econ, engineering, education, science...whatever... you will have some new and interesting ideas to use (and to to impress your friends tutors and lecturers )
- the textbook by Dixit and
Skeath, Games
of Strategy, Second Edition
, is VERY well written, has been around a number of years so there should be second hand copies available at reasonable prices. Almost all exam questions are based on questions directly out of or very similar to the end of the chapter exercises in the text; I am attempting to develop a library of video "sound-byte" clips for answers to these end-of-chapter questions as well as for past exam questions
- there is video back-up for lectures that helps if you don't quite "get" what a particular lecture was about and an archive of edited videos from lectures given in previous years on uctv
- most communication outside of lecture time is via the web -including short web based tutorials/problems
- there is no "final exam" in the official mid-year final exam period (which may, or may not, be useful in terms of your studying)
News
- midterm test Friday August 13 6:30-8:30 C2,C3
- final test Friday October 15 6:30-9:30 C2,C3
- want to earn $$$ participating in Experiments? click here
