Games, Strategies, and Decision Making - Hardcover

Harrington Jr., Joseph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1429239964 ISBN 13: 9781429239967

Publisher: Worth Publishers, 2014

Synopsis

Written for majors courses in economics, business, political science, and international relations, but accessible to students across the undergraduate spectrum, Joseph Harrington's innovative textbook makes the tools and applications of game theory and strategic reasoning both fascinating and easy to understand. Each chapter focuses a specific strategic situation as a way of introducing core concepts informally at first, then more fully, with a minimum of mathematics. At the heart of the book is a diverse collection of strategic scenarios, not only from business and politics, but from history, fiction, sports, and everyday life as well. With this approach, students don't just learn clever answers to puzzles, but instead acquire genuine insights into human behavior.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph E. Harrington, Jr. is Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University. He has served on numerous editorial boards, including the RAND Journal of Economics, Foundations and Trends in Microeconomics, and the Southern Economic Journal. His research has appeared in top journals in a variety of disciplines including economics (e.g., the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, and Games and Economic Behavior), political science (Economics and Politics, Public Choice), sociology (American Journal of Sociology), organizational behavior (Management Science), and psychology (Journal of Mathematical Psychology). He is a co-author of the leading textbook Economics of Regulation and Antitrust, which is currently in its fourth edition.

Review

'There is no better undergraduate text in game theory. It not only covers all the topics I would cover but does so with the clarity and precision that game theory demands while at the same time providing engaging applications/examples...Harrington's game theory text is indeed the 'unique best response' for anyone who faces an adoption decision for an undergraduate game theory course.' - Klaus Becker, Texas Tech University, USA 'This book is outstanding. It's written with humour and patience and is extremely accessible to students, while still being as rigorous as any advanced text in the area. The book is both a theorist's and a student's delight!' - Thomas Jeitschko, Michigan State University, USA 'One advantage of [Harrington's] text over others is that it spends a lot of time turning situations into games, and makes a good amount of effort to motivate the payoffs used, while being clear that these are typically just assumptions. Determining payoffs in games is often as much art as science, and this text seems to do a better job than most of making this known.' - Nick Feltovich, University of Houston, USA 'Harrington introduces all of the topics you would think would be in an introductory game theory text, but what makes it exceptional is the patience and care in which he spends time seeing what the theory can buy him. That is, there are very good applications to both better show how the theory works, but also to help explain many real-world situations through the lens of game theory.' - Jesse Schwartz, Kennesaw State University, USA '[Harrington's text] is a well-written, well-structured introductory game theory textbook appropriate for an audience consisting of undergraduates majoring in different fields.' - Giacomo Bonanno, University of California, Davis, USA

Edition details

• Publisher: Worth Publishers
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1429239964
• ISBN 13: 9781429239967
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 744