On Mon, 29 Jan 2001, Alex Tabarrok wrote:
> The best introduction to game theory is still the The Strategy of
> Conflict by Thomas Schelling. Although it contains no math and can be
> read by non-economists, the papers in the Strategy of Conflict were
> enormously influential among both game theorists and military
> strategists. Game theory as it exists today owes more to the brilliant
> insights of Schelling than it does to von Neumann and Morgenstern.
> Schelling should win the Nobel prize.
>
> Another good introduction, suitable for students and fun to read is
> Dixit and Nalebuff's Thinking Strategically.
>
I would second Alex's comments. Dixit and Skeath (1999) "Games of
Strategy" and Gibbons "Game Theory for Applied Economists" are also two
excellent PG rated books. Other nice R rated books are Myerson's "Game
Theory" and Fudenberg and Tirole "Game Theory".
I don't recommened reading Von Neumann and Morgenstern first, since it was
written before Nash's work.
By the way, if you read Nasar's book, she reports that when Nash
presented his results on non-cooperative games to Von Neumann, the latter
replied that they were "trivial". I wonder who will play Von Neumann in
the movie? My pick would be John Malkovich.
Alex Robson
UC Irvine
