GAMES AND NETWORKS

The goal of the course is to expose the students to the basic concepts of strategic interactions, with a particular attention to situations that involve networks. The course will be mathematically formalized and rigorous.

Calculus, Multivariate Calculus, Linear Algebra, Elementary Probability

At the end of this course the student will understand some fundamental concepts of game theory and network theory, and will be able to 1. formally model some real-life situations in terms of games and on networks, 2. find the suitable solution concepts, 3. draw conclusions from the above modeling.

The course will cover the basic aspects of non-cooperative game theory, i.e., games in normal form, mixed strategies, and main solution concepts (iterated elimination of dominated strategies, Nash equilibrium, correlated equilibrium), games in extensive form, behavior strategies, and main solution concepts (subgame perfect equilibrium), games with incomplete information. It will then move to network theory, starting with a survey of the basic concepts in graph theory and then moving to network formation (stochastic and strategic).

Jackson, M.O. (2008) Social and Economic Networks. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Maschler, M., Solan, E., Zamir, S. (2020) Game Theory. Second edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Pass, R. (2018) A Course in Networks and Markets: Game-Theoretic Models and Reasoning. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

The whole course will be taught in an interactive way.

Daily quizzes, a project, participation, a final exam.

An interview with the student