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Playing for Real, Coursepack Edition: A Text on Game Theory
Playing for Real is a problem-based textbook on game theory that has been widely used at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. This Coursepack Edition will be particularly useful for teachers new to the subject. It contains only the material necessary for a course of ten, two-hour lectures plus problem classes and comes with a disk of teaching aids including pdf files of the author's own lecture presentations together with two series of weekly exercise sets with answers and two sample final exams with answers.
There are at least three questions a game theory book might What is game theory about? How is game theory applied? Why is game theory right? Playing for Real is perhaps the only book that attempts to answer all three questions without getting heavily mathematical. Its many problems and examples are an integral part of its approach. Just as athletes take pleasure in training their bodies, there is much satisfaction to be found in training one's mind to think in a way that is simultaneously rational and creative. With all of its puzzles and paradoxes, game theory provides a magnificent mental gymnasium for this purpose. It is the author's hope that exercising on the equipment provided by this Coursepack Edition will bring the reader the same kind of pleasure that it has brought to so many other students.
There are at least three questions a game theory book might What is game theory about? How is game theory applied? Why is game theory right? Playing for Real is perhaps the only book that attempts to answer all three questions without getting heavily mathematical. Its many problems and examples are an integral part of its approach. Just as athletes take pleasure in training their bodies, there is much satisfaction to be found in training one's mind to think in a way that is simultaneously rational and creative. With all of its puzzles and paradoxes, game theory provides a magnificent mental gymnasium for this purpose. It is the author's hope that exercising on the equipment provided by this Coursepack Edition will bring the reader the same kind of pleasure that it has brought to so many other students.
408 pages, Paperback
First published March 2, 2007
20 people are currently reading
555 people want to read
About the author
Ken Binmore
43 books81 followersProfessor of Economics at UCL, after holding corresponding positions at LSE and the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan. Onetime Professor of Mathematics at LSE.
Author of 77 published papers and 11 books. Research in evolutionary game theory, bargaining theory, experimental economics, political philosophy, mathematics and statistics.
Grants from National Science Foundation (3), ESRC (1), STICERD (2) and others. Chairman of LSE Economics Theory Workshop (10 years), Director of Michigan Economic Laboratory (5 years). Fellow of the Econometric Society and British Academy. Extensive collaboration with 25 co-authors.
Awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List 2001 largely for his role in designing the UK 3G Spectrum Auction.
Author of 77 published papers and 11 books. Research in evolutionary game theory, bargaining theory, experimental economics, political philosophy, mathematics and statistics.
Grants from National Science Foundation (3), ESRC (1), STICERD (2) and others. Chairman of LSE Economics Theory Workshop (10 years), Director of Michigan Economic Laboratory (5 years). Fellow of the Econometric Society and British Academy. Extensive collaboration with 25 co-authors.
Awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List 2001 largely for his role in designing the UK 3G Spectrum Auction.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 8, 2012
This is probably the only textbook I have ever read cover to cover, and then went back and started reading it again. Absolutely, fantastic text on game theory.
August 17, 2020
While I like and respect the author very much, Game Theory has simply no use in the real world.
This can mainly be attributed to the Ludic Fallacy:
Basically the misuse of narrowly defined games to model real life situations (prisons dilemma). People dont act exclusively rational and they for sure don’t possess all the information before making decisions.
Due to the uselessness of the field itself it’s a waste of time. Still the author does his best to make the field interesting and does have some interesting insights.
This can mainly be attributed to the Ludic Fallacy:
Basically the misuse of narrowly defined games to model real life situations (prisons dilemma). People dont act exclusively rational and they for sure don’t possess all the information before making decisions.
Due to the uselessness of the field itself it’s a waste of time. Still the author does his best to make the field interesting and does have some interesting insights.
May 11, 2023
Outlines modern economic theory based on Hume; heir to Smith.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews