ECON 159: Game Theory
Lecture 01 - Introduction: Five First Lessons. We introduce Game Theory by playing a game. We organize the game into players, their strategies, and their goals or payoffs; and we learn that we should decide what our goals are before we make choices. With some plausible payoffs, our game is a prisoners' dilemma. We learn that we should never choose a dominated strategy; but that rational play by rational players can lead to bad outcomes. We discuss some prisoners' dilemmas in the real world and some possible real-world remedies. With other plausible payoffs, our game is a coordination problem and has very different outcomes: so different payoffs matter. We often need to think, not only about our own payoffs, but also others' payoffs. We should put ourselves in others' shoes and try to predict what they will do. This is the essence of strategic thinking. (from oyc.yale.edu)
| Lecture 01 - Introduction: Five First Lessons |
| Time | Lecture Chapters |
| [00:00:00] | 1. What Is Strategy? |
| [00:02:16] | 2. Strategy: Where Does It Apply? |
| [00:09:40] | 3. Elements of a Game: Strategies, Actions, Outcomes and Payoffs |
| [00:21:38] | 4. Strictly Dominant versus Strictly Dominated Strategies |
| [00:29:33] | 5. Contracts and Collusion |
| [00:33:35] | 6. The Failure of Collusion and Inefficient Outcomes: Prisoner's Dilemma |
| [00:41:40] | 7. Coordination Problems |
| [01:07:53] | 8. Lesson Recap |
| References |
| Lecture 1 - Introduction: Five First Lessons Instructor: Professor Ben Polak. Resources: Summary Lecture 1 [PDF]; Blackboard Notes Lecture 1 [PDF]. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov]. |
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