STAT/ECON 473 Game Theory

Week-by-Week Syllabus

Spring 2019

Consult the Reading guide for the exact sections of the text your are expected to read.

Week 1 Introduction, Quick overview of decision making with one decision maker, decisions under uncertainty: utility functions, rational choice introduction to game theory: extensive and strategic normal forms, information sets, strategies
Read Read Chapters 1 and 2 and Notes on decision making with a single decision maker
Week 2 Pareto optimal solutions, strict domination of strategies, (weak) domination of strategies, iterated deletion of strictly dominated strategies (IDSDS), second price sealed bid auctions
Read Read Chapter 3
Week 3 Best Responses, Nash Equilibrium, polar vortex day off
Read Read Chapter 4, Notes on iterated eliminated and Nash equilibria and the first page of Notes on auctions
Week 4 comparison between IDSDS and Nash equilibrium, equilibria in multiplayer games Nash equilibria in continuous games
Read Read Chapter 5, Chapter 6
Week 5 economic applications to Cournout duopoly, mixed strategies, finding mixed strategy equilibria
Read Read Chapter 7
Week 6 more on mixed strategy equilibria, extensive games of perfect information, backward induction, review for midterm 1
Week 7 Midterm I, subgame perfect equilibrium, Nash v. sub game perfect equilibria
Read Read Chapter 8
Week 8 extensive games of imperfect information, games with asymmetric information, Bayesian games, Bayes-Nash equilibrium
Read Read Chapter 9,10
Week 9 more on Bayesian games, auctions with independent private values
Read Read notes on auctions, notes on very simple poker model
Week 10 Revenue Equivalence Theorem for auctions, reserve price auctions, stable matchings, Gale-Shapley Algorithm
Read Read notes on auctions and notes on stable matching.
Spring Break!
Week 11 extensive games with asymmetric information, perfect Bayesian equilibrium, signaling games
Read Chapter 11
Week 12 more on signaling games, finitely repeated games
Read Chapter 13
Week 13 more on discount factors, infinitely repeated games, grim trigger strategies, review
Read Chapter 13
Week 14 midterm 2, more on infinitely repeated games, The Folk Theorem
Week 15 Evolutionarily games
Read Chapter 16

Last revised:4/25/19