Game theory
hideGame theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences (most notably economics), biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science, and philosophy. Game theory attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations, in which an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others. While initially developed to analyze competitions in which one individual does better at another's expense (zero sum games), it has been expanded to treat a wide class of interactions, which are classified according to several criteria. Today, "game theory is a sort of umbrella or 'unified field' theory for the rational side of social science, where 'social' is interpreted broadly, to include human as well as non-human players (computers, animals, plants)" (Aumann 1987).
Traditional applications of game theory attempt to find equilibria in these games. In an equilibrium, each player of the game has adopted a strategy that they are unlikely to change. Many equilibrium concepts have been developed (most famously the Nash equilibrium) in an attempt to capture this idea. These equilibrium concepts are motivated differently depending on the field of application, although they often overlap or coincide. This methodology is not without criticism, and debates continue over the appropriateness of particular equilibrium concepts, the appropriateness of equilibria altogether, and the usefulness of mathematical models more generally.
Although some developments occurred before it, the field of game theory came into being with the 1944 book Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. This theory was developed extensively in the 1950s by many scholars. Game theory was later explicitly applied to biology in the 1970s, although similar developments go back at least as far as the 1930s. Game theory has been widely recognized as an important tool in many fields. Eight game theorists have won Nobel prizes in economics, and John Maynard Smith was awarded the Crafoord Prize for his application of game theory to biology.
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News tagged with game theory
What computer science can teach economics
Technology / Computer Sciences
Nov 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer scientists have spent decades developing techniques for answering a single question: How long does a given calculation take to perform? Constantinos Daskalakis, an assistant professor ...
Growing online sales could lower prices, but also trim choices
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Shoppers could see lower prices but less variety to choose from as more manufacturers sell directly to consumers through the Internet, according to new research led by a University of Illinois business professor.
Sharing Scarce Flu Vaccine May Be Best: Game Theory Model Shows Hoarding Supplies Isn't Healthiest Choice
Sep 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As manufacturers race to test and deliver an H1N1 influenza vaccine by October, public health officials are working equally feverishly to determine how scarce doses should be allocated.
The right honourable computer, barrister-at-law
Technology / Computer Sciences
Sep 04, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- European researchers have created a legal analysis query engine that combines artificial intelligence, game theory and semantics to offer advice, conflict prevention and dispute settlement ...
Raven teenager gangs play by game theory
May 22, 2009 |
3 / 5 (2) |
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Game theory models predicted that young ravens gain the greatest advantage from hunting in a pack. Now the young birds have figured this out for themselves, and form gangs to oust older raven pairs from tasty carcasses.
Game theory and machine learning offer better bidding strategies
Technology / Computer Sciences
May 13, 2009 |
4 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- By combining techniques from game theory and artificial intelligence, computer scientists at the University of Michigan have developed a better way to find the best bidding strategy in a simulated auction ...
Game theory study: Cooperative behavior meshes with evolutionary theory
Apr 06, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- One of the perplexing questions raised by evolutionary theory is how cooperative behavior, which benefits other members of a species at a cost to the individual, came to exist.
Scientists examine how social networks influence behavior
Other Sciences / Social Sciences
Mar 22, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (6) |
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Conventional wisdom holds that it's not what you know, it's who you know. But now scientists studying networking are starting to realize that when it comes to much in life, it's also who the people you know know, and perhaps ...
Bizarre bird behavior predicted by game theory
Feb 25, 2009 |
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A team of scientists, led by the University of Exeter, has used game theory to explain the bizarre behaviour of a group of ravens. Juvenile birds from a roost in North Wales have been observed adopting the ...
Caltech economist makes a game of economic theory
Feb 16, 2009 |
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How game theory and insights from cognitive psychology can shed light on the economic choices people and corporations make will be the focus of a topical lecture presented by California Institute of Technology (Caltech) behavioral ...
Strategies for Retailers Fighting Price Wars
Technology / Computer Sciences
Feb 04, 2009 |
2.9 / 5 (10) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- All retail companies want to maximize their profits, while at the same time maintaining high market share compared with their competitors. One way to do this is by promising to offer the lowest ...
Why you can't hurry love
Biology /
Jan 16, 2009 |
3 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have developed a mathematical model of the mating game to help explain why courtship is often protracted. The study, by researchers at UCL (University College London), University of Warwick and ...
