Spring 2008 Advance Course Information

This information effective for spring 2008. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Economics

[ ECON-139A ] [ ECON-166A ]

139A. Electronic Commerce

Instructor: Stephen J. Turnbull
Phone: 9-5556 (office)
E-mail: sturnbul@ucsc.edu
Web site: http://people.ucsc.edu/~sturnbul/

For information about this course, please go to http://people.ucsc.edu/~sturnbul/Econ139A/

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166A. Game Theory and Applications I

Instructor: Dan Friedman
Phone: 9-4981 (office)
E-mail: dan@ucsc.edu

Course Description

Game theory is the systematic study of strategic interaction among entities with differing objectives. It has become a premier research tool for evolutionary biologists as well as for economists and other social scientists. Recently it has emerged in cutting edge research in computer science as well.

UCSC has a competitive advantage in some of the most exciting and applicable subfields in game theory, especially adaptive dynamics, spatial interactions and computer modeling. These subfields, although new, are more accessible to undergraduates than many of the more established subfields in game theory, and the course sequence will emphasize them.

The first course—offered for the first time in spring 2008—will introduce students to modern game theory, including applications in social science, biology and engineering. The lead instructor this quarter will be Dan Friedman, Professor of Economics. Guest lecturers will include leading UCSC researchers from the Engineering School and the Biology Department.

The pedagogical approach will include traditional lectures, homework, exams, and term projects, but also will include active learning in the form of classroom demonstration games and subsequent discussions.

Each student will join a 3-5 person team that includes students from different majors.  Each team will develop strategies for weekly classroom games, and each member will receive bonus points based on her team’s performance. Even more important, each team will complete a term project, with perhaps 25% weight in the overall evaluation. Thus students will have a strong incentive to work closely with others from diverse intellectual backgrounds to develop effective joint strategies and joint research. The result should be true mutual learning along with the enjoyment of a team sport.

Required Texts

• Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory, 2nd Edition by Joel Watson (Norton, 2006).

Supplementary texts will be selected from the following list:

• Behavioral Game Theory, Colin Camerer, (Princeton UP, 2003).
• Games of Strategy, 2nd Edition,Avinash Dixit and Susan Skeath (Norton, 2004).
• Game Theory Evolving, Herbert Gintis, (Princeton University Press, 2000).
• Games and Information 4th Ed, Eric Rasmusen (Blackwell, 2007).
• An Introduction to Game Theory, Martin Osborne, (Oxford UP, 2004).
• Game Theory for Applied Economists, by Robert Gibbons (Princeton U. Press, 1992).

Material for the last part of the course will be drawn from:

• Evolutionary Dynamics, Martin Nowak, (Harvard UP, 2006).
• An Introduction to MultiAgent Systems, Michael Wooldridge, (Wiley, 2002).
• Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castranova, (U Chicago P, 2005).

Tentative 166A Syllabus

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