This course is a 24 1 hour lesson, on-line open course offered by Yale that introduces the topics of Game Theory. The sessions begin with an introduction to game theory and how to predict what the other players will do. The course continues to look at Nash Equilibriums and how they occur in dating, shopping, choosing locations, segregation and randomization. Mixed strategies, which require making decisions a percentage of the time since there is not single dominant strategy. Finally the course ends with looking at repeated games, which have the same stages occurring one after the other and players can use their previous rounds to inform their decisions.
The first lesson breaks down 4 key lessons to take away from game theory:
- You should never choose a strictly dominated strategy
- Rational players taking rational decisions can lead to bad decisions
- Before determining your strategy, you should determine your payouts, and your opponent’s payouts
- If both of your strategies are equally valid, try to predict what your opponent would do.
This course does a very good job breaking down all of the elements in game theory. It was recommended by McLaughlin (source 16). When I have more time to dive into it, I will be continuing with this course, rather than just taking the first couple of classes.
Spencer Hight 