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Game Theory
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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.
You can find a full syllabus and description of the course here: http://web.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/GTOC-Syllabus.html There is also an advanced follow-up course to this one, for people already familiar with game theory: https://www.coursera.org/learn/gametheory2/ You can find an introductory video here: http://web.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/Intro_Networks.mp4
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 videos•Total 80 minutes
- Introductory Video•8 minutes
- 1-1 Game Theory Intro - TCP Backoff •11 minutes
- 1-2 Self-Interested Agents and Utility Theory •4 minutes
- 1-3 Defining Games •11 minutes
- 1-4 Examples of Games •6 minutes
- 1-5 Nash Equilibrium Intro •4 minutes
- 1-6 Strategic Reasoning •10 minutes
- 1-7 Best Response and Nash Equilibrium •3 minutes
- 1-8 Nash Equilibrium of Example Games •6 minutes
- 1-9 Dominant Strategies •8 minutes
- 1-10 Pareto Optimality •9 minutes
2 readings•Total 20 minutes
- Syllabus•10 minutes
- A Brief Introduction to the Basics of Game Theory•10 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 1•30 minutes
- Problem Set 1•30 minutes
3 discussion prompts•Total 30 minutes
- Play the TCP game if you like•10 minutes
- Play some games after Lecture 1.4 if you like•10 minutes
- Play Keynes Beauty Contest Game if you like•10 minutes
pure and mixed strategy Nash equilibria
What's included
7 videos2 assignments
7 videos•Total 76 minutes
- 2-1 Mixed Strategies and Nash Equilibrium (I) •3 minutes
- 2-2 Mixed Strategies and Nash Equilibrium (II)•14 minutes
- 2-3 Computing Mixed Nash Equilibrium •12 minutes
- 2-4 Hardness Beyond 2x2 Games - Basic •5 minutes
- 2-4 Hardness Beyond 2x2 Games - Advanced •21 minutes
- 2-5 Example: Mixed Strategy Nash •11 minutes
- 2-6 Data: Professional Sports and Mixed Strategies •11 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 2•30 minutes
- Problem Set 2•30 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 videos•Total 64 minutes
- 3-1 Beyond the Nash Equilibrium •4 minutes
- 3-2 Strictly Dominated Strategies & Iterative Removal •20 minutes
- 3-3 Dominated Strategies & Iterative Removal: An Application •9 minutes
- 3-4 Maxmin Strategies •10 minutes
- 3-4 Maxmin Strategies - Advanced•16 minutes
- 3-5 Correlated Equilibrium: Intuition •5 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 3•30 minutes
- Problem Set 3•30 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 videos•Total 101 minutes
- 4-1 Perfect Information Extensive Form: Taste •4 minutes
- 4-2 Formalizing Perfect Information Extensive Form Games •6 minutes
- 4-3 Perfect Information Extensive Form: Strategies, BR, NE •14 minutes
- 4-4 Subgame Perfection •10 minutes
- 4-5 Backward Induction •13 minutes
- 4-6 Subgame Perfect Application: Ultimatum Bargaining•18 minutes
- 4-7 Imperfect Information Extensive Form: Poker •4 minutes
- 4-8 Imperfect Information Extensive Form: Definition, Strategies •11 minutes
- 4-9 Mixed and Behavioral Strategies •9 minutes
- 4-10 Incomplete Information in the Extensive Form: Beyond Subgame Perfection •13 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 4•30 minutes
- Problem Set 4•30 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 20 minutes
- Play the Centipede Game if you like•10 minutes
- Play the Rainbow Warship game if you like•10 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 videos•Total 87 minutes
- 5-1 Repeated Games •6 minutes
- 5-2 Infinitely Repeated Games: Utility •7 minutes
- 5-3 Stochastic Games •6 minutes
- 5-4 Learning in Repeated Games •16 minutes
- 5-5 Equilibria of Infinitely Repeated Games •29 minutes
- 5-6 Discounted Repeated Games •13 minutes
- 5-7 A Folk Theorem for Discounted Repeated Games •11 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Problem Set 5•30 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 5•30 minutes
2 discussion prompts•Total 20 minutes
- Play some repeated games if you like•10 minutes
- Play the repeated battle of the sexes game•10 minutes
General definitions, ex ante/interim Bayesian Nash equilibrium.
What's included
6 videos2 assignments
6 videos•Total 53 minutes
- 6-1 Bayesian Games: Taste •6 minutes
- 6-2 Bayesian Games: First Definition •10 minutes
- 6-2 Bayesian Games: First Defintion (yoav)•8 minutes
- 6-3 Bayesian Games: Second Definition •7 minutes
- 6-4 Analyzing Bayesian Games •11 minutes
- 6-5 Analyzing Bayesian Games: Another Example •10 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Problem Set 6•30 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 6•30 minutes
Transferable utility cooperative games, Shapley value, Core, applications.
What's included
5 videos2 assignments
5 videos•Total 52 minutes
- 7-1 Coalitional Game Theory: Taste •4 minutes
- 7-2 Coalitional Game Theory: Definitions •6 minutes
- 7-3 The Shapley Value •16 minutes
- 7-4 The Core •15 minutes
- 7-5 Comparing the Core and Shapley value in an Example •11 minutes
2 assignments•Total 60 minutes
- Problem Set 7•30 minutes
- In-Video Quizzes Week 7•30 minutes
The description goes here
What's included
1 assignment
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
- Final Exam•30 minutes
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Reviewed on Jul 3, 2020
The first weeks are very well structured and can be understood, but later on it gets more confused. I don't feel like I understand the cooperative games (weeks 6-8) after this course.
Reviewed on Jun 5, 2022
this is a very interesting course i ever join. it's very practical and train our brain to use logic when decide on something. i'm very excited to continue my course to Game Theory II.
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.
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