Controversies in Game Theory

The mini-course "Controversies in Game Theory XI: Simple Game, Complex Games, Written Contracts, Unwritten Contracts"  brings together various strands of game theory research spanning social sciences and computer science, with focus on theories of learning in games with applications in various disciplines. We will contrast simple games versus complex games, as well as written contracts versus unwritten contracts, and compare the pros and cons of either in a number of different contexts and for different purposes. 

Important: Course material is intended for personal use in the context of this course only; redistributing, citing or publishing any of the material is strictly prohibited. If prompted, please enter your ETH username and password to download course materials.

Course Info: Course dates are from Monday 26.05 to Friday 30.05. More detailed information about the course may be found in the Course Catalogue here.

Course structure:

• 8:00-9:00: Open hour in which Prof. Nax is avaliable for questions about the course.
• 9:00-12:00: Lectures
• 12:00-13:00: Exercises and group work

See below for detailed information about talks and course materials. 

Room: ML H 37.1

Suggested literature:

• Ken Binmore, Fun and games, a text on game theory, 1994, Great Source Education
• Andreas Diekmann, Spieltheorie: Einführung, Beispiele, Experimente, 2009, Rowolth
• Roberto Serrano, 2007. "Cooperative Games: Core and Shapley Value," Working Papers wp2007_0709, CEMFI. Available external page here.

Further suggested readings:

by Dirk Helbing:

- J. Hofbauer and Karl Sigmund: Evolutionary Games and Population Dynamics
- H. Gintis: Game Theory Evolving
- D. Helbing: Quantitative Sociodynamics
- D. Helbing: Social Self-Organization
- D. Helbing: A stochastic behavioral model and a ‚microscopic‘ foundation of evolutionary game theory
- D. Helbing, M. Schönhof, H.-U. Stark, and J.A. Holyst: How individuals learn to take turns…
- D. Helbing and S. Lozano: Phase transitions to cooperation in the prisoner’s dilemma
- D. Helbing and A. Johansson: Cooperation, norms, and revolutions…
- D. Helbing and T. Platkowski: Drift- or fluctuation-induced ordering and self-organization in driven many-particle systems
- D. Helbing and W. Yu: Migration as mechanism to promote cooperation
- D. Helbing, A. Szolnoki, M. Perc, and G. Szabo: Evolutionary establishment of moral and double moral standards…
- T. Grund, C. Waloszek, and D. Helbing: How natural selection can create both self- and other-regarding preferences and networked minds
- D. Helbing: Economics 2.0: The natural step towards a self-regulating, participatory market economy
- D. Helbing and A. Johansson: Pedestrian, crowd and evacuation dynamics
- S. Hoogendoorn and P.H.L. Bovy: Simulation of pedestrian flows by optimal control and differential games- D. Helbing et al. An Analytical Theory of Traffic Flow (collection of research articles)
- D. Helbing and S. Lämmer: Supply and Production Networks...

by Heinrich Nax:

Game theory classics:
- Zur theorie der Gesellschaftsspiele by J. v.Neumann
- Nash's PhD thesis

On matching:
- College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage by D. Gale and L. S. Shapley
- Two-sided matching by A. Roth and M. Sotomayor (textbook)
- Random paths to stability in two-sided matching by A. Roth and J. Vande Vate
- Papers presented by Bary Pradelski (see Friday session)

On behavioral game theory:
- Progress in Behavioral Game Theory by C. Camerer (survey)
- Learning and the economics of small decisions by I. Erev and E. Haruvy (generalized RL from the psychology perspective)

Own research on best-response dynamics:
- A behavioral study of “noise” in coordination games with M. Maes
- What noise matters? Experimental evidence for stochastic deviations in social norms with E. Bilancini and L. Boncinelli

AGT:
- Worst-case equilibria by E. Koutsoupias and C. Papadimitriou
- The complexity of computing a Nash equilibrium by C. Daskalakis, P. Goldberg and C. Papadimitriou