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Game Theory: Open Access textbook

arxiv.org

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Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#12

Post by MichaelAO »

tramGG wrote: post #2

I'm looking to learn Game Theory. Anyone with knowledge in this space have good additional recommendations?

This youtube channel has proven invaluable to me: https://www.youtube.com/user/JimBobJenkins

His book is also great (http://gametheory101.com/textbooks/), but mostly a reiteration of the videos.

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#13

Post by wenc »

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious.

There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#14

Post by zoren »

wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

In The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that applying game theory to real life situations is one instance of the ludic fallacy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludic_fallacy

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#15

Post by [deleted] »

wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

[deleted]

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#16

Post by duality »

wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

Perhaps there are real world scenarios not totally unlike those from game theory. You can imagine situations like the prisoners' dilemma, where maximizing each individual's expected benefit from taking some action is suboptimal due to no means to cooperate.

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#17

Post by paultopia »

wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

Define "applied." Researchers in economics and political science use it to understand all kinds of things, does that account? The Rand Corporation probably had an influence on real-world military policy during the cold war with it...

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#18

Post by TFortunato »

wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

From what I understand, Game Theory is used in "mechanism design", or basically the design of auctions for things like the FCC spectrum auctions, or how facebook / google auction off ad slots.

Not a mathematician so I don't have any great references, but a couple bits in the press about it:

http://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2015/10/20/application-of-...

https://www.wired.com/2015/09/facebook-doesnt-make-much-mone...

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#19

Post by rasmusei »

tramGG wrote: post #2

I'm looking to learn Game Theory. Anyone with knowledge in this space have good additional recommendations?

I'm currently a TA in a basic game theory for MSc students at a technical university. For the basic theoretical concepts we use as a course book Leyton-Brown & Shoham (2008) Essentials of Game Theory: A Concise, Multidisciplinary Introduction. This book is great because it is short and to the point, precise without diving deep into everything. Introduces most important concepts in less than 100 pages.

Re: Game Theory: Open Access textbook

#20

Post by TFortunato »

TFortunato wrote: post #18
wenc wrote: post #13

Has anyone here applied Game Theory to a real-world productionized problem? I'm curious. There are many hypothetical situations where game theory is said to be useful, but I've never seen an application of it in real life.

From what I understand, Game Theory is used in "mechanism design", or basically the design of auctions for things like the FCC spectrum auctions, or how facebook / google auction off ad slots. Not a mathematician so I don't have any great references, but a couple bits in the press about it: http://blogs.cornell.edu/info2040/2015/10/20/application-of-... https://www.wired.com/2015/09/facebook-doesnt-make-much-mone...

Just to add: A bit more about the type of auction design facebook was using at the time the article was written.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey%E2%80%93Clarke%E2%80%9...

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