Game Theory

Game Theory

Instructors: Matthew O. Jackson

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Assessments

15 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 8 modules in this course

Popularized by movies such as "A Beautiful Mind," game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction among rational (and irrational) agents. Beyond what we call `games' in common language, such as chess, poker, soccer, etc., it includes the modeling of conflict among nations, political campaigns, competition among firms, and trading behavior in markets such as the NYSE. How could you begin to model keyword auctions, and peer to peer file-sharing networks, without accounting for the incentives of the people using them? The course will provide the basics: representing games and strategies, the extensive form (which computer scientists call game trees), Bayesian games (modeling things like auctions), repeated and stochastic games, and more. We'll include a variety of examples including classic games and a few applications.

Introduction, overview, uses of game theory, some applications and examples, and formal definitions of: the normal form, payoffs, strategies, pure strategy Nash equilibrium, dominant strategies

What's included

11 videos2 readings2 assignments3 discussion prompts

11 videosTotal 79 minutes

Introductory Video8 minutesPreview module
1-1 Game Theory Intro - TCP Backoff 11 minutes
1-2 Self-Interested Agents and Utility Theory 3 minutes
1-3 Defining Games 10 minutes
1-4 Examples of Games 5 minutes
1-5 Nash Equilibrium Intro 4 minutes
1-6 Strategic Reasoning 10 minutes
1-7 Best Response and Nash Equilibrium 2 minutes
1-8 Nash Equilibrium of Example Games 6 minutes
1-9 Dominant Strategies 7 minutes
1-10 Pareto Optimality 8 minutes

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

Syllabus10 minutes
A Brief Introduction to the Basics of Game Theory10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 130 minutes
Problem Set 130 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Play the TCP game if you like10 minutes
Play some games after Lecture 1.4 if you like10 minutes
Play Keynes Beauty Contest Game if you like10 minutes

pure and mixed strategy Nash equilibria

What's included

7 videos2 assignments

7 videosTotal 75 minutes

2-1 Mixed Strategies and Nash Equilibrium (I) 2 minutesPreview module
2-2 Mixed Strategies and Nash Equilibrium (II)14 minutes
2-3 Computing Mixed Nash Equilibrium 11 minutes
2-4 Hardness Beyond 2x2 Games - Basic 5 minutes
2-4 Hardness Beyond 2x2 Games - Advanced 20 minutes
2-5 Example: Mixed Strategy Nash 10 minutes
2-6 Data: Professional Sports and Mixed Strategies 10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 230 minutes
Problem Set 230 minutes

Iterative removal of strictly dominated strategies, minimax strategies and the minimax theorem for zero-sum game, correlated equilibria

What's included

6 videos2 assignments

6 videosTotal 63 minutes

3-1 Beyond the Nash Equilibrium 3 minutesPreview module
3-2 Strictly Dominated Strategies & Iterative Removal 19 minutes
3-3 Dominated Strategies & Iterative Removal: An Application 9 minutes
3-4 Maxmin Strategies 9 minutes
3-4 Maxmin Strategies - Advanced16 minutes
3-5 Correlated Equilibrium: Intuition 5 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 330 minutes
Problem Set 330 minutes

Perfect information games: trees, players assigned to nodes, payoffs, backward Induction, subgame perfect equilibrium, introduction to imperfect-information games, mixed versus behavioral strategies.

What's included

10 videos2 assignments2 discussion prompts

10 videosTotal 101 minutes

4-1 Perfect Information Extensive Form: Taste 3 minutesPreview module
4-2 Formalizing Perfect Information Extensive Form Games 6 minutes
4-3 Perfect Information Extensive Form: Strategies, BR, NE 13 minutes
4-4 Subgame Perfection 9 minutes
4-5 Backward Induction 13 minutes
4-6 Subgame Perfect Application: Ultimatum Bargaining17 minutes
4-7 Imperfect Information Extensive Form: Poker 3 minutes
4-8 Imperfect Information Extensive Form: Definition, Strategies 10 minutes
4-9 Mixed and Behavioral Strategies 8 minutes
4-10 Incomplete Information in the Extensive Form: Beyond Subgame Perfection 13 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 430 minutes
Problem Set 430 minutes

2 discussion promptsTotal 20 minutes

Play the Centipede Game if you like10 minutes
Play the Rainbow Warship game if you like10 minutes

Repeated prisoners dilemma, finite and infinite repeated games, limited-average versus future-discounted reward, folk theorems, stochastic games and learning.

What's included

7 videos2 assignments2 discussion prompts

7 videosTotal 87 minutes

5-1 Repeated Games 6 minutesPreview module
5-2 Infinitely Repeated Games: Utility 6 minutes
5-3 Stochastic Games 5 minutes
5-4 Learning in Repeated Games 15 minutes
5-5 Equilibria of Infinitely Repeated Games 28 minutes
5-6 Discounted Repeated Games 13 minutes
5-7 A Folk Theorem for Discounted Repeated Games 10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 530 minutes
Problem Set 530 minutes

2 discussion promptsTotal 20 minutes

Play some repeated games if you like10 minutes
Play the repeated battle of the sexes game10 minutes

General definitions, ex ante/interim Bayesian Nash equilibrium.

What's included

6 videos2 assignments

6 videosTotal 52 minutes

6-1 Bayesian Games: Taste 6 minutesPreview module
6-2 Bayesian Games: First Definition 9 minutes
6-2 Bayesian Games: First Defintion (yoav)8 minutes
6-3 Bayesian Games: Second Definition 6 minutes
6-4 Analyzing Bayesian Games 11 minutes
6-5 Analyzing Bayesian Games: Another Example 10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

In-Video Quizzes Week 630 minutes
Problem Set 630 minutes

Transferable utility cooperative games, Shapley value, Core, applications.

What's included

5 videos2 assignments

The description goes here

What's included

1 assignment

Instructors

Instructor ratings

4.5 (744 ratings)

Matthew O. Jackson

Stanford University

3 Courses611,188 learners

Kevin Leyton-Brown

The University of British Columbia

2 Courses557,503 learners

Yoav Shoham

Stanford University

2 Courses557,503 learners

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Stanford University

The University of British Columbia

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Reviewed on Feb 7, 2022

I would have preferred a more mathematically rigorous treatment of the subject. Nevertheless, this was a great course — the instructors expounded all concepts with exceptional clarity and engagement.

Reviewed on May 8, 2017

The course is generally good. The exercises however are not very well explained. Furthermore, it would be nice to have a pdf from the course in order to be able to study independently.

Reviewed on Oct 6, 2016

Had lots of fun doing this course. The lectures were all top quality and never bombarded us with too much information at once.

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