Game Theory for Economists: Strategic Decision Making

How do businesses decide on pricing when competing for the same customers? How do governments design auctions for public resources? Game theory provides the formal mathematical framework to analyze these strategic situations and predict outcomes in economic environments.\n\nThis text-based course guides you from foundational concepts to practical economic applications, enabling you to model and solve complex strategic interactions. You will learn to think strategically, analyze competitive markets, and understand the incentives that drive human and corporate behavior.\n\nWhat you'll learn:\n- Understand foundational concepts including Nash equilibrium, dominant strategies, and normal-form games.\n- Analyze sequential decision-making using extensive-form games and backward induction.\n- Model market competition, oligopolies, and pricing strategies using classic economic games.\n- Apply asymmetric information concepts, including signaling, screening, and adverse selection.\n- Evaluate modern auction designs and mechanism design principles used in real-world markets.\n- Explore behavioral game theory concepts that account for bounded rationality and social preferences.\n\nYou will start with core definitions and payoff matrices before moving systematically through static and dynamic games, complete with written scenarios and step-by-step mathematical proofs. This comprehensive guide is designed for aspiring economists, finance professionals, and business analysts who want to build a strong analytical foundation with no prior game theory experience required.\n\nStart reading today to master the strategic tools that drive modern economic analysis.