Game Theory

Game Theory

Instructors: Matthew O. Jackson

Access provided by Martin Luther Christian University

572,693 already enrolled

8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

4,909 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

92%

Most learners liked this course

8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

4,909 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

92%

Most learners liked this course

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

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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 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

In-Video Quizzes Week 5 30 minutes
Problem Set 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

In-Video Quizzes Week 6 30 minutes
Problem Set 6 30 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

(785 ratings)

Matthew O. Jackson

Stanford University

3 Courses 640,537 learners

Kevin Leyton-Brown

The University of British Columbia

2 Courses 585,211 learners

Yoav Shoham

Stanford University

2 Courses 585,211 learners

Offered by

Stanford University

The University of British Columbia

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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 Jan 26, 2019

Excellent course for beginners. Problem sets are very creative. No more further resources needed. I found this course specially useful if the purpose is to apply Game Theory in other disciplines.

Reviewed on Jul 5, 2020

Overall, a good introductory course with clear presentations and challenging tests. However, one of the professors is more difficult to follow as the pace of presentation is not fluid.

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