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Game Theory: An Introduction
The definitive introduction to game theory
This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the principal ideas and applications of game theory, in a style that combines rigor with accessibility. Steven Tadelis begins with a concise description of rational decision making, and goes on to discuss strategic and extensive form games with complete information, Bayesian games, and extensive form games with imperfect information. He covers a host of topics, including multistage and repeated games, bargaining theory, auctions, rent-seeking games, mechanism design, signaling games, reputation building, and information transmission games. Unlike other books on game theory, this one begins with the idea of rationality and explores its implications for multiperson decision problems through concepts like dominated strategies and rationalizability. Only then does it present the subject of Nash equilibrium and its derivatives.
Game Theory is the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Throughout, concepts and methods are explained using real-world examples backed by precise analytic material. The book features many important applications to economics and political science, as well as numerous exercises that focus on how to formalize informal situations and then analyze them.
Introduces the core ideas and applications of game theory
Covers static and dynamic games, with complete and incomplete information
Features a variety of examples, applications, and exercises
Topics include repeated games, bargaining, auctions, signaling, reputation, and information transmission
Ideal for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students
Complete solutions available to teachers and selected solutions available to students
This comprehensive textbook introduces readers to the principal ideas and applications of game theory, in a style that combines rigor with accessibility. Steven Tadelis begins with a concise description of rational decision making, and goes on to discuss strategic and extensive form games with complete information, Bayesian games, and extensive form games with imperfect information. He covers a host of topics, including multistage and repeated games, bargaining theory, auctions, rent-seeking games, mechanism design, signaling games, reputation building, and information transmission games. Unlike other books on game theory, this one begins with the idea of rationality and explores its implications for multiperson decision problems through concepts like dominated strategies and rationalizability. Only then does it present the subject of Nash equilibrium and its derivatives.
Game Theory is the ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Throughout, concepts and methods are explained using real-world examples backed by precise analytic material. The book features many important applications to economics and political science, as well as numerous exercises that focus on how to formalize informal situations and then analyze them.
Introduces the core ideas and applications of game theory
Covers static and dynamic games, with complete and incomplete information
Features a variety of examples, applications, and exercises
Topics include repeated games, bargaining, auctions, signaling, reputation, and information transmission
Ideal for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students
Complete solutions available to teachers and selected solutions available to students
416 pages, Hardcover
First published December 17, 2012
54 people are currently reading
1481 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 17, 2015
I'm giving up on this one for now. As it goes on, it gets more and more technical and the notation gets beyond me. I need to find a good game theory tutor and come back to it.
September 18, 2022
Steve Tadelis has written an up-to-date, comprehensive, yet reader-friendly introductory textbook to game theory. He explains difficult concepts in an exceptionally clear and simple way, making the book accessible to students with a minimal background in mathematics. The abundance of examples and illustrations, drawing from economics, political science, and business strategy, not only shows the wide range of applications of game theory, but also makes the book attractive and fun to read. Tadelis's book will undoubtedly become a reference textbook for a first course in game theory.
Francis Bloch, école Polytechnique
It's hard to write a game theory textbook that strikes a good balance between precision and accessibility. But Steve Tadelis has accomplished this juggling act, with style and humor besides.
Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Harvard
Game theory is a powerful tool for understanding strategic behavior in business, politics, and other settings. Steve Tadelis's text provides an ideal guide, taking you from first principles of decision theory to models of bargaining, auctions, signaling, and reputation building in a style that is both rigorous and reader-friendly.
Jonathan Levin, Stanford
Game Theory fills a void in the literature, serving as a text for an advanced undergraduate―or masters-level class. It has more detail than most undergraduate texts, while still being accessible to a broad audience and stopping short of the more technical approach of PhD-level texts. This is a valuable book, written by a meticulous scholar who is an expert in the field.
Matthew O. Jackson, author of Social and Economic Networks
This is a great text, just at the right level for fourth-year undergraduates. The style is just right and the exercises are of high quality. Flow and organization are major strengths of the book―I can follow the text almost as is for the class I teach.
Luca Anderlini, Georgetown University
Francis Bloch, école Polytechnique
It's hard to write a game theory textbook that strikes a good balance between precision and accessibility. But Steve Tadelis has accomplished this juggling act, with style and humor besides.
Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics, Harvard
Game theory is a powerful tool for understanding strategic behavior in business, politics, and other settings. Steve Tadelis's text provides an ideal guide, taking you from first principles of decision theory to models of bargaining, auctions, signaling, and reputation building in a style that is both rigorous and reader-friendly.
Jonathan Levin, Stanford
Game Theory fills a void in the literature, serving as a text for an advanced undergraduate―or masters-level class. It has more detail than most undergraduate texts, while still being accessible to a broad audience and stopping short of the more technical approach of PhD-level texts. This is a valuable book, written by a meticulous scholar who is an expert in the field.
Matthew O. Jackson, author of Social and Economic Networks
This is a great text, just at the right level for fourth-year undergraduates. The style is just right and the exercises are of high quality. Flow and organization are major strengths of the book―I can follow the text almost as is for the class I teach.
Luca Anderlini, Georgetown University
January 9, 2018
This is a great introduction to game theory. It's broken up into five different sections. The first gives an overview of game theory, and the other four discuss different aspects of games in that are static or dynamic and complete or partial information.
Each chapter starts with a brief overview of the contents, and then goes over a few different examples of the information. Each chapter ends with a summary of the information covered. The examples can be pretty detailed, and I found myself skimming a lot of them. The intro and summary give a good general idea of the importance of the chapter, but you've got to read at least most of the examples to get an understanding of the math behind them.
I found the treatment of Nash equilibria and subgame perfect equilibria to be pretty good (though not the best I've seen). I also found the explanations of mechanism design (basically: how to set up a voting system) and signaling to be very informative.
Each chapter starts with a brief overview of the contents, and then goes over a few different examples of the information. Each chapter ends with a summary of the information covered. The examples can be pretty detailed, and I found myself skimming a lot of them. The intro and summary give a good general idea of the importance of the chapter, but you've got to read at least most of the examples to get an understanding of the math behind them.
I found the treatment of Nash equilibria and subgame perfect equilibria to be pretty good (though not the best I've seen). I also found the explanations of mechanism design (basically: how to set up a voting system) and signaling to be very informative.
December 20, 2023
Read for school, good!
May 6, 2016
Reread
(in preparation for comps)
I breezed through the book, reviewing and grasping things quicker than last time. Feels like progress.
Earlier review from Oct 2015
This is a pretty comprehensive introduction to Game Theory covering everything from the simple normal form games to dynamic games of incomplete information and Bayesian equilibria.
The one issue that I had with it was that occasionally it gets notation heavy and not the easiest to follow without occasional notes.
Geared towards advanced undergraduates or graduate students. It even has a few chapters of math and calculus review at the end for those who need a primer.
(in preparation for comps)
I breezed through the book, reviewing and grasping things quicker than last time. Feels like progress.
Earlier review from Oct 2015
This is a pretty comprehensive introduction to Game Theory covering everything from the simple normal form games to dynamic games of incomplete information and Bayesian equilibria.
The one issue that I had with it was that occasionally it gets notation heavy and not the easiest to follow without occasional notes.
Geared towards advanced undergraduates or graduate students. It even has a few chapters of math and calculus review at the end for those who need a primer.
February 6, 2016
A well-written book.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews