An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition by Martin J. Osborne (PDF)

Description

Game theoretic reasoning pervades economic theory and is used widely in other social and behavioral sciences. An Introduction to Game Theory, by Martin J. Osborne, presents the main principles of game theory and shows how they can be used to understand economic, social, political, and biological phenomena. The book introduces in an accessible manner the main ideas behind the theory rather than their mathematical expression. All concepts are defined precisely, and logical reasoning is used throughout. The book requires an understanding of basic mathematics but assumes no specific knowledge of economics, political science, or other social or behavioral sciences. Coverage includes the fundamental concepts of strategic games, extensive games with perfect information, and coalitional games; the more advanced subjects of Bayesian games and extensive games with imperfect information; and the topics of repeated games, bargaining theory, evolutionary equilibrium, rationalizability, and maxminimization. The book offers a wide variety of illustrations from the social and behavioral sciences and more than 280 exercises. Each topic features examples that highlight theoretical points and illustrations that demonstrate how the theory may be used. Explaining the key concepts of game theory as simply as possible while maintaining complete precision, An Introduction to Game Theory is ideal for undergraduate and introductory graduate courses in game theory.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “This is a textbook to be enjoyed both by professors and students, full of clever and often original applications and examples. Serious students who use this text are likely to emerge with a new way of thinking about much of what they see in the real world.”–Ted Bergstrom, Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara”The book is just superb. I anticipate (based both on my own reading of the book, and comments from colleagues at other institutions) that this will be the standard text for introductory courses in game theory in political science departments for the foreseeable future.”–Scott Gehlbach, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin”What distinguishes this book from other texts is its remarkable combination of rigor and accessibility. The central concepts of game theory are presented with the mathematical precision suitable for a graduate course, but with an abundance of wide-ranging examples that will give undergraduate students a concrete understanding of what the concepts mean and how they may be used.”–Charles A. Wilson, Professor of Economics, New York University”A great book, by far the best out there in the market in thoroughness and structure.”–Dorothea Herreiner, Assistant Professor of Economics, Bowdoin College”The ideal textbook for applied game theory . . . . It teaches basic game theory from the ground up, using just enough clearly defined technical terminology and ranging from traditional basics to the most modern tools.”–Randy Calvert, Professor of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis”The approach is intuitive, yet rigorous. Key concepts are explained through a series of examples to guide students through analysis. The examples are then followed by interesting and challenging questions. The main strength is the impressive set of exercises . . . they are extremely well organized and incredibly broad, ranging from easy questions to those for adventurous students.”–In-Koo Cho, William Kinkead Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Illinois”The gentle pace of the material along with the plethora of examples drawn from economics (mainly) and political science seems to work very well with students.”-Branislav L. Slantchev,Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, San Diego”The book is excellent. It is chock full of exercises that are both interesting and applicable to real issues, allowing me great flexibility in focusing on specific examples to illustrate the theory.”–Christopher Proulx, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara”This book provides a simple yet precise introduction into game theory, suitable for the undergraduate level. Author Martin J. Osborne makes use of a wide variety of examples from social and behavioral sciences to convey game-theoretic reasoning. Readers can expect to gain a thorough understanding without any previous knowledge of economics, political science, or any other social or behavioral science. No mathematics is assumed beyond that of basic high school.”–Journal of Macroeconomics About the Author Martin J. Osborne is at University of Toronto.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If your time is valuable the following two sentences would be enough to summarize my thoughts about this book.Students: If you are required to buy this book, get it used or google it. Yale has incredibly good materials in their open course website oyc.yale.edu/economics/econ-159Anyone else: It will be very wise to spend your money in “any” of the other game theory books.—–My original review is as follows and I am separating it because although I have tried to stay calm and keep it in a respectful way, I have just lost it.——-Let me start this review by saying that I am a graduating senior in a top 10 school so you guys can eliminate unintended biases.It has been more than three months dealing with this book for my game theory class and it would be safe to say this time frame is long enough for me to judge and compare this book with other textbooks required for my class. Although other reviewers mentioned that this book is confusing, after spending more than 10 minutes trying to put in a delicate way, I am just going to say this book is not just confusing, it is just ****, sorry for the language, but maybe the publisher or author should have proof read this book before publishing it. Maybe it is just me but I don’t see who is the potential audience of this book combining confusing language, with no flow of logic and no math. Even writing this review I have spent more than 20 minutes trying to understand how did the publisher gave this book a green light or why are the professors around the nation is using this book. Saying this would probably hurt the credibility of this review but this books just sucks, plain and simple, this textbook is a perfect example of how a textbook shouldn’t be….

⭐To give context for this review, I have an undergraduate degree in mathematics, am nearly done with a master’s in the same subject, and have nearly a decade of experience in a technical field. I believe this is one of the lesser quality texts that I have encountered throughout my academic and professional career. I am roughly a month into using this text, and it takes me 4 or 5 times reading through a single paragraph to understand the author’s attempts to describe simple concepts. Hopefully this comparison doesn’t detract from the quality of the review, but the scenario descriptions are occasionally written in convoluted run-on sentences similar to Vizzini from “Princess Bride” trying to reason his way out of drinking iocane powder. Additionally, I do not like that the text requires you to consult an online reference for explanations of example problems, since the examples are often necessary to decipher the block text descriptions. The language/notation seems to vacillate back and forth between different skill levels, meaning that it lacks consistency and oversimplifies at some points and over-complicates at others. I will be stuck relying primarily on lecture notes and setting aside twice as much time as planned to slog through the assigned reading. Luckily I have a good professor, but if you have a difficult-to-follow professor to accompany this book or are looking for a stand-alone reference, I would seek out supplemental resources.

⭐I bought this book as a required coursebook for a class on game theory. At first, I hated this book. There are no solutions to the exercises contained within the book, as another reviewer has noted. If you want to self-teach, you may struggle. However, after performing due diligence, I found that there exists online a pdf of solutions to most exercises within the book, available for free.I can not speak for whether this book is best in comparison to others, because I have not read others, nor would I have the in-depth knowledge to compare, as this is not my field.What I can tell you is that I have learned a lot from this book, but only once I found the self-published solutions manual from the author, available here:[…]If you buy this book, that’s pretty necessary if you plan to go forward alone.

⭐This is a into great book that works well in companion with the more advanced “A Course in Game Theory,” by Osborne and Rubinstein. That said it is not layperson’s guide to Game Theory, if such a thing could possibly exist.Complaints of a pervious reviewer seem unfounded. Yes, game theory requires math. Game thoery, like most other theory, is also not packaged to be directly ported to the “real world.” It requires the use of stylized models to make any ground. Figuring out how to apply a subject like game thoery to the real world is not something that can really be conveyed in a book. Rather, one should try to internlize the concepts contained in the thoery by working simple examples.

⭐This book manages to teach game theory in depth while avoiding any mathematics beyond rudimentary calculus and set theory. It was used as the basis for an undergraduate course that I took, and none of the texts I’ve used as a graduate student can compare in terms of clarity. This is a book that takes its time, letting ideas sink in rather than abandoning students who don’t grasp new concepts right away. The problems given are interesting, and many have clearly-written solutions available online.If you are looking for a more advanced text, then Ken Binmore’s recent

⭐stands out above the crowd.

⭐The book offers several argument about modern applications of the game theory. Particullary, it is importantant the Bayesan probability and the relation with the information theory. The autor leads the student into the secrets of the actual economy. I’m sorry that the cooperative games are treated no completly.

⭐The book is written in a very long winded style and the structure within chapters is all over the place. The book would have benefited a lot from being edited for flow and conciseness. Something the book has going for it is that the author assumes no prior knowledge, which is great if you’re new to game theory.

⭐Il libro è ottimo, un must read per chiunque si volesse approcciare alla teoria dei giochi da un punto di vista formale. Non fate però l’errore di acquistare la versione Kindle del libro. Data la natura del testo, l’autore usa spesso una notazione matematica formale, che però è resa malissimo, rendendo il libro illeggibile e incomprensibile. M aspettavo molto di più da un ebook formato kindle, ho fatto lavori di conversione su pdf in awz3 che a confronto erano professionali. Prendete il cartaceo o il pdf.Nella foto: un esempio di come è su kindle, e come dovrebbe essere.What can i say – this book to me is FANTASTIC – i cannot read enough of it ! Not being a genius in pure maths, its the right level for me to start learning about game theory. I found the answers online which is fine,i can read the pdfs or print out the answers as i go thru the book ! I think having them in book might be a bit tempting for me personally as well 🙂 I’m just glad i can just check my answers.I bought a second hand copy, but honestly coudlnt see any difference between this and a new copy, except my wallet which save alot of money !Great seller, great book – get it if your serious about learning gametheory and use this as a starting block before getting into the more in-depth publications.

⭐Top um sich auf Klausuren vor zu bereiten, durch viele Übungen (incl. Lösungen auf der Website) und anschauliche Beispiele nur zu empfehlen.Auch zum Nachschlagen super!Go to class and you wont really need this book!

Keywords

Free Download An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition in PDF format
An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition PDF Free Download
Download An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition 2003 PDF Free
An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition 2003 PDF Free Download
Download An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition PDF
Free Download Ebook An Introduction to Game Theory 1st Edition