Introduction to Game Theory

 

Course Content and Objectives:  This course is an introduction to game theory, the study of strategic behavior among parties having opposed, mixed or similar interests. This course will sharpen your understanding of strategic behavior in encounters with other individuals--modeled as games--and as a participant in broader markets involving many individuals. You will learn how to recognize and model strategic situations, to predict when and how your actions will influence the decisions of others and to exploit strategic situations for your own benefit. 

 

Lectures:  We will meet for lectures (and play games!) in the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory, 2600 Posvar Hall.  There are two sections offered of this course. Section 1 meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30am-10:45am. Section 2 meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11am-12:15pm. align There are no recitation sections for this course.

 

My Office and Office Hours: 4929 Posvar Hall, Wednesdays 9-11am

Telephone: 412-648-1733

Email: jduffy@pitt.edu

Course Web Page: http://www.pitt.edu/~jduffy/econ1200/

 

Requirements:  There will be two exams: a midterm and a final examination. You will also have to complete a term project, and a number of homework assignments. The weights given to these requirements in determining your final grade for the course are:

 

Homeworks 10%

Midterm Exam 30%

Term Project 30%

Final Exam 30%

 

Course Policies:  Late homeworks and term projects are not accepted.  Make-up exams are not offered. There is no extra credit.

 

Textbook: Games of Strategy, 2^nd Ed. by Avinash Dixit and Susan Skeath, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 2004.  This book is required and is available at the Book Center. A copy is on 2-hour reserve at the GSPIA Library, 1400 Posvar Hall.  Recommended supplemental reading: Thinking Strategically by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff, New York: W.W. Norton, 1991, also available on 2-hour reserve at the GSPIA library.

 

Software:  We will make use of the comlabgames software, available at http://www.comlabgames.com

for classroom demonstrations of games. In addition, you can design the game you develop for your term project using this software.

 

Lab Assistant:  Charles Kannair, 2600 Posvar Hall, 412-383-7770, email: kannair@pitt.edu. Mr. Kannair is available to help you with the comlabgames software.

Course Outline and Reading Assignments (tentative, and subject to change)

08/26-09/04: Elements of a Game, Thinking Strategically, Introduction to comlabgames software.

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 1-2.  Dixit and Nalebuff Chapter 1.

 

09/09-09/18: Sequential Move Games

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapter 3. *Dixit and Skeath Chapter 17, pp. 577-590.

 Dixit and Nalebuff, Chapter 2.

 

09/23-10/02: Simultaneous Move Games, Combined Sequential/Simultaneous Move Games

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 4-6. Dixit and Nalebuff, Chapter 3.

 

10/07-10/21: Mixed Strategies and Best Response Functions

Note: No class Tuesday, 10/14 due to Fall Break.

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 7-8. Dixit and Nalebuff, Chapter 7.

 

Midterm Exam, Thursday, October 23, in class.

 

10/28-11/06:  Prisoner’s Dilemma, Repeated Games, Evolution of Cooperation

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 11 and 13.  Dixit and Nalebuff Chapter 4.

 

11/11-11/20: Incomplete Information Games, Signaling, Threats and Credibility

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 9-10. Dixit and Nalebuff Chapters 5-6.

 

11/25-12/04: Strategic Behavior in Elections and Markets

 

*Dixit and Skeath Chapters 15 and 18. *Auction terminology in Dixit and Skeath Chapter 16.

 

Term Project due Tuesday, December 2.

 

Final Examination Check the final exam schedule for your section of this course.

 

 

* = Required Readings