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Read October 21, 2008, 03:19:40 am #0
sids

Game Theory book recommendation needed

I need recommendations for a book on Game Theory. Apart from having read a few articles on it (on Wikipedia and elsewhere) and having participated in discussions involving it, I do not know much more about Game Theory. So I'm looking for a book that can provide a good introduction to it. I would be doubly delighted if the book is 'easy read'. Thanks in advance.


http://www.grok.in/
"Ignorance killed the cat, curiosity was framed."
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Read October 21, 2008, 05:28:46 am #1
sri

Re: Game Theory book recommendation needed

Read up "The evolution of cooperation" by Robert Axelrod, which I would highly recommend. Also, I've found "An introduction to game theory" by Martin Osborne, to be very readable. There are a few more books which I can't think of right now. I also recommend the chapter "Information and Rationality" from my book Grin -- if nothing else, for the literature I have cited there.
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Read October 21, 2008, 07:10:24 am #2
sids

Re: Game Theory book recommendation needed

Read up "The evolution of cooperation" by Robert Axelrod, which I would highly recommend. Also, I've found "An introduction to game theory" by Martin Osborne, to be very readable. There are a few more books which I can't think of right now. I also recommend the chapter "Information and Rationality" from my book Grin -- if nothing else, for the literature I have cited there.

Thank you very much. And I've already read the last one Smiley


http://www.grok.in/
"Ignorance killed the cat, curiosity was framed."
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Read October 21, 2008, 03:52:11 pm #3
sanket

Re: Game Theory book recommendation needed

If you are okay with web resources, here's a course on Game Theory with fairly detailed lecture notes: http://www.virtualperfection.com/gametheory/

And many more, here: http://www.gametheory.net/lectures/level.pl

Evolution of Cooperation is excellent to understand the basics of game theory like the prisoner's dilemma, collective stability, equilibrium, ESS etc.. It also helps us develop a level understanding of game theory using which we can model many situations in terms of a game.
***

Sometime back I had read V. Raghunathan's 'Games Indians Play: Why we are the way we are'. That is also a fairly good book. Unlike Axelrod's book where he argues how simple, natural and inevitable cooperation is, this book is mostly about how non-cooperation has stabilised in India. As the title suggests, the authors tries to answer the 'why' question through a game theoretical perspective. Specifically, he does it by modelling many of our day to day interactions in terms of prisoner's dilemma (PD). The author suggests that most of the 'non-cooperative bahaviour' that exists in India is because the games we play mostly remain one shot PDs and do not progress into becoming IPDs. (I have some thoughts on this that I'll probably talk about in another post.) The book does not offer anything frightfully new to someone who is familiar with PD and its possibilities. Nonetheless, the book is a welcome and useful approach to understanding India's problems: a lot of times India's problems are stated at very abstract (philosophical, cultural) levels; trying to understand them in terms of economics raises hopes of finding feasible concrete solutions.



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Read October 23, 2008, 08:26:57 am #4
sids

Re: Game Theory book recommendation needed

@sanket,

Thanks for the link. But I am not too keen on web resources, it's too easy to get distracted Smiley

I'm going to buy 'Evolution of Cooperation', looking forward to reading it. One thing though: why is it so expensive? The paperback edition costs ~700 INR.

I was intrigued by 'Games Indians Play' as soon as it released and actually bought it off the 'New Releases' rack. Unfortunately, a friend borrowed it even before I could start reading it and hasn't returned it yet Sad. I should call him up...


http://www.grok.in/
"Ignorance killed the cat, curiosity was framed."
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Read October 23, 2008, 12:25:06 pm #5
sanket

Re: Game Theory book recommendation needed

@sids: I think the revised edition is a lot more expensive than the first edition. (And I don't think there is an awful lot of difference between the two.) But I am not sure if you can get the older edition online.
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