MTH 460—Theory of Games

Introduces the mathematical theory of games–a systematic approach to modeling conflict, competition, cooperation, and negotiation–with applications to mathematics, economics, politics and evolutionary biology. A game, in mathematical terms, consists of a starting point and various choices made by ‘players.’ Each choice might lead to new choices or to an outcome that ends the game. Some choices might be random; some might be made without full information about what has transpired. The players are each trying to maximize their own payoff, but the play of each might influence the results of the others. The approaches Game Theory uses to analyze conflict between two or more people lead to results that can seem paradoxical as well as illuminating. The most important thing a student can take from this course is a useful way of approaching decisions, from the trivial– how does a couple decide which movie to see–to the critical–how should countries pursue their goals in cooperation or conflict with their allies and enemies. Partial list of topics: Prisoner’s Dilemma, game trees, pure and mixed strategies, backward induction, normal form, Nash equilibrium, chance moves, utility functions, domination, convexity, payoff regions, strictly competitive games, separating hyperplanes, repeating games, and cooperative bargaining theory.