Textbook
[DSR] = Dixit, Avinash, Susan Skeath, and David Reiley. Games of Strategy. 3rd ed. W. W. Norton & Company, 2009. ISBN: 9780393931129.
| SES # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction |
Brandenburger, Adam, and Barry Nalebuff. “The Right Game: Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy.” Harvard Business Review, July 1995. Smith, Raymond. “Business as a War Game: A Report from the Battlefront.” Fortune 134, no. 6 (1996): 190–92. [DSR] Chapter 1: Introduction. |
| 2 | Rationality |
Brandenburger, and Nalebuff. Chapter 3 in Co-opetition. Doubleday Business, 1996. ISBN: 9780385479493. [DSR] Chapters 2: Basics, 4–4.4: Dominance, Best response, 11.1: Prisoners’ Dilemma, and 11.6: Experimental Evidence. |
| 3 | Nash Equilibrium | [DSR] Chapters 4.7: Multiple Equilibria, 5.3: Nash Equilibrium, and 5.4: Rationalizability. |
| 4 | (Un)predictable Outcomes | [DSR] Chapter 7: Mixed Strategies, skip Sections 7.2C and 7.5A. |
| 5 | Application: Strategic Trade Policy | Krugman, Paul R. “Is Free Trade Passé?” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 1, no. 2 (1987): 131–44. |
| 6 | Designing Games and Influencing Outcomes |
Chevalier, Judith. “When it can be Good to Burn your Boats,” Financial Times, October 25, 1999, p. 12. [DSR] Chapter 10: Strategic Moves. |
| 7 | Backward Induction |
Chevalier, Judith. “The Pros and Cons of Entering a Market Surveys Edition,” Financial Times, November 1, 1999, p. 5. Lieberman, Marvin B., and David B. Montgomery. “First-mover Advantages.” Strategic Management Journal 9, no. S1 (1988): 41–58. [DSR] Chapter 3: Sequential Moves. |
| 8 | Bargaining |
Michaels, Daniel. “Dogfight: In the Secret World of Airplane Deals, One Battle Up Close—Boeing, Airbus Vied to Meet Cutthroat Terms of Iberia; Strong Carriers Call Shots—Dangling the Used Car Option,” (PDF) Wall Street Journal, March 10, 2003. Brandenburger, and Nalebuff. Chapter 4 in Co-opetition. Doubleday Business, 1996, pp. 71–91. ISBN: 9780385479493. [DSR] Chapter 18: Bargaining. |
| 9 | Wars of Attrition | Rivkin, Jan W. “Dogfight over Europe: RyanAir (A).” Harvard Business School Case: 9–700–115, June 2000. |
| 10 | Team Presentations: Project Proposals | No readings. |
| 11 | Dynamic Price Competition | Brandenburger, and Nalebuff. Chapter 5 in Co-opetition. Doubleday Business, 1996, pp. 131–45. ISBN: 9780385479493. |
| 12 | Introduction to Repeated Interaction |
Garicano, Luis, and Robert Gertner. “The Dynamics of Price Competition,” Financial Times, October 18, 1999, p. 2. [DSR] Chapter 11: Prisoners’ Dilemma and Repeated Games. |
| 13 | Long-run Relationships |
Milgrom, Paul, and John Roberts. “Johnson Controls, Inc.—Automotive System Group: The Georgetown, Kentucky Plants.” Stanford Graduate School of Business Case: BE-9, 1993. Stewart, James. “Taking the Dare.” The New Yorker, July 1993, pp. 34–39. |
| 14 | Application: Tacit Coordination | Porter, Michael E. “General Electric vs. Westinghouse in Large Turbine Generators (A).” Harvard Business School Case: 380–128, August 1986. |
| 15 | Games with Asymmetric Information | [DSR] Chapters 9.1–2: Uncertainty and Information. |
| 16 | Introduction to Auctions | [DSR] Chapter 17: Auctions. |
| 17 | Online Auctions |
Clifford, Stephanie. “A Web Shift in the Way Advertisers See Clicks,” New York Times, April 21, 2008. Angwin, Julia. “The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets,” Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2010. Singer, Natasha. “Your Online Attention, Bought in an Instant,” New York Times, November 17, 2012. |
| 18 | Designing Auctions and Other Markets |
McAfee, R. Preston. “The Greatest Auction in History.” In Better Living through Economics. Edited by John Siegfried. Harvard University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780674064126. [Preview with Google Books] Tulis, Tracy. “How Game Theory Helped Improve New York City’s High School Application Process,” New York Times, December 5, 2014. |
| 19 | Costly Signaling vs. Cheap Talk | [DSR] Chapters 9.3–6: Cheap Talk & Signaling. |
| 20 | Credibility and Reputation | Kreps, David. Chapter 23 in Microeconomics for Managers. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, pp. 556–73. ISBN: 9780393976786. |
| 21 | Application: Cold War Politics |
Schelling, Thomas. Chapters 7 and 8 in Strategy of Conflict. Oxford University Press, 1963. ISBN: 9780195002492. Dixit, Avinash K., and Susan Skeath. Games of Strategy. W. W. Norton & Company, 1999. ISBN: 9780393974218. |
| 22 | Team Project Presentations | No readings. |
| 23 | Team Project Presentations (cont.) | Takeaways from team projects and in-class games. |
