Games of Strategy - Hardcover

Dixit, Avinash & Skeath, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393974219 ISBN 13: 9780393974218

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 1999

Synopsis

All introductory textbooks begin by attempting to convince the student readers that the subject is of great importance in the world, and therefore merits their attention. The physical sciences and engineering claim to be the basis of modern technology and therefore of modern life; the social sciences discuss big issues of governance, for example, democracy and taxation; the humanities claim that they revive your soul after it has been deadened by exposure to the physical and social sciences and to engineering. Where does the subject "games of strategy," often also called game theory, fit into this picture, and why should you study it? Dixit and Skeath's Games of Strategy offers a practical motivation much more individual and closer to your personal concerns than most other subjects. You play games of strategy all the time: with your parents, siblings, friends, enemies, even with your professors. You have probably acquired a lot of instinctive expertise, and we hope you will recognize in what follows some of the lessons you have already learned. This book's authors will build on this experience, systematize it, and develop it to the point where you will be able to improve your strategic skills and use them more methodically. Opportunities for such uses will appear throughout the rest of your life; you will go on playing such games with your employers, employees, spouses, children, and even strangers. Not that the subject lacks wider importance. Similar games are played in business, politics, diplomacy, wars--in fact, whenever people interact to strike mutually agreeable deals or to resolve conflicts. Being able to recognize such games will enrich your understanding of the world around you, and will make you a better participant in all its affairs.

About this title

About the Author

Avinash Dixit is Emeritus John J.F. Sherrerd University Professor of Economics at Princeton University, where he offered his popular freshman course in game theory. He is among the world’s leading economists, having made fundamental contributions in several major fields as well as in game theory. He is the author of many books, including Dixit/Nalebuff: Thinking Strategically (Norton, 1991), Dixit/Pindyck: Investment Under Uncertainty (Princeton University Press, 1994), and Dixit/Nalebuff: The Art of Strategy (Norton, 2009).

Review

A marvelous book! Every topic is right on target, and the exposition is extraordinary. You can count me among the many people who will find it the best undergraduate text on the subject. -- Vincent Crawford, University of California-San Diego

Dixit and Skeath recognize the possibility of teaching the concepts of game theory at the earliest stages of the undergraduate curriculum; this is very progressive and praiseworthy. Using Games of Strategy, students everywhere--budding military strategists at Annapolis and economic theorists in training at Chicago alike--will be able to enjoy an early introduction to the field. The generous variety of illustrative specific cases has the effect that what is learned can be more easily retained than if there were only the assertion of theoretical concepts without enlightening examples. -- John F. Nash jr., Princeton University, Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences

Games of Strategy provides a marvelous introduction to game theory. It is full of engaging examples drawn from economics, political science, and other areas. This book would serve very well as the core text for a nontechnical game theory course in political science departments. -- Robert Powell, University of California-Berkeley

I have long thought that an elementary game theory text was a great idea, and I have reviewed a number of book proposals and manuscripts by economists hoping to produce such a book. Games of Strategy is super, both in its initial objectives and in its execution of them. -- Amanda Bayer, Swarthmore College

Thanks very much for allowing me to use the draft version of Games of Strategy, by Avinash Dixit and Susan Skeath. It is a superb book, probably the best text that I have used in my twelve years as a college professor. My sense is that it quickly will become the most widely used nontechnical introduction to game theory. It is extremely well done. -- Larry Evans, College of William and Mary

To know game theory is to change your lifetime way of thinking. Games of Strategy is a delightful skeleton key to the twenty-first century's emerging culture. -- Paul A. Samuelson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nobel Laureate, Economic Sciences

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0393974219
• ISBN 13: 9780393974218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 600