The Language of Game Theory: Putting Epistemics into the Mathematics of Games

by Adam M. Brandenburger

This volume contains eight papers written by Adam Brandenburger and his co-authors over a period of 25 years. These papers are part of a program to reconstruct game theory in order to make what players believe about a game a central feature of the theory. The program — now called epistemic game theory — extends the classical definition of a game model to include not only the game matrix or game tree, but also what each player believes about how the game will be played, and even higher-order beliefs. With this richer mathematical framework, it becomes possible to determine what different configurations of beliefs among the players imply for how a game is played. Epistemic game theory includes traditional equilibrium-based theory as a special case, but allows for a wide range of non-equilibrium behavior.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2013

About the author

Adam Brandenburger is the Vice Dean for Graduate Education and the J.P. Valles Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Prior to joining Stern, he held the M.B.A. Class of 1958 Professorship at Harvard Business School.

Adam is an authority on game theory and its application to business strategy, and teaches an MBA course on this subject. He was voted NYU Stern M.B.A. Professor of the Year in 2006. His book Co-opetition (with Barry Nalebuff, Doubleday, 1996) is used by businesses as a guide to strategy in the information economy, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Born in London, England, Adam received his B.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge.