I am searching for readings I can assign for my Smith College game theory class that I will teach this spring. The course has a one semester calculus requirement. An ideal article would be available for free on the internet, and would use game theory to explain something interesting. Suggestions?
Its a bit old (1976), but in The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins uses game theory to describe animal aggression (in chapter 5) and altruism and cooperation (particularly in chapters 10 and 12).
There are a few free downloads of the book out there, e.g. here.
In the same vein, I would highly recommend John Maynard Smith’s “Evolution and the Theory of Games”. It has many highly motivated examples of Game Theory in Biology by a real biologist. The later chapters get dense but the first half is readable with a basic knowledge of calculus (which was in fact my background when I first picked up this book).
I’m not sure about the level of rigor you’re looking for; whether this is supposed to be a fun, short assignment, or something less accessible. This doesn’t really go into any mathematics, but shows the interesting and even entertaining side of game theory pretty well:
There’re also Douglas Hofstadter’s writings on game theory, which, like pretty much everything of his, are a joy to read (for me, at least). I wouldn’t quite say he uses game theory to “explain something,” but whatever he does do achieves a similar goal. Unfortunately, the only PDF I could find (not that I looked very hard) is very poorly formatted; I recommend searching it for “Dilemmas for Superrational Thinkers” or going for the Post Scriptum starting on page 31, as those are both particularly interesting parts (in different ways).
I am searching for readings I can assign for my Smith College game theory class that I will teach this spring. The course has a one semester calculus requirement. An ideal article would be available for free on the internet, and would use game theory to explain something interesting. Suggestions?
Its a bit old (1976), but in The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins uses game theory to describe animal aggression (in chapter 5) and altruism and cooperation (particularly in chapters 10 and 12).
There are a few free downloads of the book out there, e.g. here.
In the same vein, I would highly recommend John Maynard Smith’s “Evolution and the Theory of Games”. It has many highly motivated examples of Game Theory in Biology by a real biologist. The later chapters get dense but the first half is readable with a basic knowledge of calculus (which was in fact my background when I first picked up this book).
here’s a few on
coordination failures: http://coordination.org/
asymmetric information: George A. Akerlof, The Market for “Lemons”
how human behavior can depart from game theory: Richard H. Thaler, Anomalies: The Ultimatum Game
how we sometime get it right: Ariel Rubinstein, An Optimal Conviction Policy for Offenses that May Have Been Committed by Accident
also see readings from 14.11, Insights from Game Theory into Social Behavior
I’m not sure about the level of rigor you’re looking for; whether this is supposed to be a fun, short assignment, or something less accessible. This doesn’t really go into any mathematics, but shows the interesting and even entertaining side of game theory pretty well:
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2013/02/03/The-Next-Page-Everyday-uses-for-game-theory-such-as-when-to-wash-the-dishes/stories/201302030375
There’re also Douglas Hofstadter’s writings on game theory, which, like pretty much everything of his, are a joy to read (for me, at least). I wouldn’t quite say he uses game theory to “explain something,” but whatever he does do achieves a similar goal. Unfortunately, the only PDF I could find (not that I looked very hard) is very poorly formatted; I recommend searching it for “Dilemmas for Superrational Thinkers” or going for the Post Scriptum starting on page 31, as those are both particularly interesting parts (in different ways).
http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/tesfatsi/AxelrodComputerTournaments.ExcerptsFromHofstadterSciAmArticle.1983.pdf
I hope one of these was helpful.