MA 440-001 - Game Theory

Mathematics

Web resources:

Wikipedia article on game theory.
Mind your Decisions, by Presh Talwalkar, a high-quality blog that features game-theory topics.
gametheory.net, a web site devoted to game theory. It includes, among other things, Game theory in the popular press, a collection of links to articles about game theory in biology, ethics and religion, psychology, politics, security and terrorism, etc. (Seems to stop in 2006.)
VirtualLabs in evolutionary game theory, demos illustrating recent research.

On-line game theory texts:

Game Theory: A Nontechnical Introduction to the Analysis of Strategy by Roger McCain.
Strategies and Games: Theory and Practice by Prajit K. Dutta. Go to the library home page and click on "My Course Reserves."

Some books about game theory (there are many!):

Game Theory: Decisions, Interaction and Evolution by James N. Webb. A recent (2007) text intended for use in a mathematics department.
Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff. The best popular introduction to game theory that I know of.
Games of Strategy by Avinash K. Dixit and Susan Skeath. A freshman-sophomore textbook version of the previous book. Chapter 14 is a quite convincing discussion of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Game Theory and Strategy by Philip D. Straffin. A short introduction to game theory. Chapter 24 analyzes the rather bizarre organization of certain Pathan tribes of northwestern Pakistan.
An Introduction to Game Theory by Martin J. Osborne. A good introductory text at about the level of our course, with lots of examples.
Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict by Roger B. Myerson. A more advanced text, but careful and clear.
Biblical Games: Game Theory and the Hebrew Bible by Steven J. Brams.
The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod.
Evolutionary Dynamics: Exploring the Equations of Life by Martin A. Nowak

Interesting articles:

Mathematical Fortune-Telling by Julie Rehmeyer (Science News)
Fish, parasites, and the prisoner's dilemma (Nature, October 16, 2008): article about the authors and research article

Software:

Gambit, game theory software and tools.
Dynamo, Mathematica notebooks for generating phase diagrams, vector fields, and other graphics related to evolutionary game theory.

Last modified Mon Oct 27 2008
Send questions or comments to schecter@math.ncsu.edu