Essentials of Game Theory: A Concise, Multidisciplinary Introduction

104 Pages·2008·3.913 MB·English

by  Kevin Leyton-Brown, Yoav Shoham

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ESSENTIALS OF GAME
THEORY
i
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iii
Synthesis Lectures on Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning
Editors
RonaldJ.Brachman,YahooResearch
TomDietterich,OregonStateUniversity
IntelligentAutonomousRobotics
PeterStone
2007
AConciseIntroductiontoMultiagentSystemsandDistributedArtificialIntelligence
NikosVlassis
2007
EssentialsofGameTheory:AConcise,MultidisciplinaryIntroduction
KevinLeyton-BrownandYoavShoham
2008
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Copyright© 2008byMorgan&Claypool
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedin
anyformorbyanymeans—electronic,mechanical,photocopy,recording,oranyotherexceptforbriefquotations
inprintedreviews,withoutthepriorpermissionofthepublisher.
EssentialsofGameTheory
KevinLeyton-BrownandYoavShoham
www.morganclaypool.com
ISBN:9781598295931 paper
ISBN:9781598295948 ebook
DOI:10.2200/S00108ED1V01Y200802AIM003
APublicationintheMorgan&ClaypoolPublishersseries
SYNTHESISLECTURESONARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCEANDMACHINELEARNING#3
Lecture#3
SeriesEditor:RonaldJ.Brachman,Yahoo!ResearchandTomDietterich,OregonStateUniversity
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
SeriesISSN:1939-4608 print
SeriesISSN:1939-4616 electronic
iv
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ESSENTIALS OF
GAME THEORY
A Concise, Multidisciplinary
Introduction
KevinLeyton-Brown
UniversityofBritishColumbia,Vancouver,BC,Canada
http://cs.ubc.ca/∼kevinlb
YoavShoham
StanfordUniversity,PaloAlto,CA,USA
http://cs.stanford.edu/∼shoham
M
&C &
M o r g a n C l a y p o o l P u b l i s h e r s
v
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ABSTRACT
Game theory is the mathematical study of interaction among independent, self-interested
agents. The audience for game theory has grown dramatically in recent years, and now spans
disciplinesasdiverseaspoliticalscience,biology,psychology,economics,linguistics,sociology
andcomputerscience–amongothers.Whathasbeenmissingisarelativelyshortintroduction
tothefieldcoveringthecommonbasisthatanyonewithaprofessionalinterestingametheory
is likely to require. Such a text would minimize notation, ruthlessly focus on essentials, and
yet not sacrifice rigor. This Synthesis Lecture aims to fill this gap by providing a concise and
accessible introduction to the field. It covers the main classes of games, their representations,
andthemainconceptsusedtoanalyzethem.
“This introduction is just what a growing multidisciplinary audience needs: it is concise, au-
thoritative,uptodate,andclearontheimportantconceptualissues.”
—RobertStalnaker,MIT,LinguisticsandPhilosophy
“IwishI’dhadacomprehensive,clearandrigorousintroductiontotheessentialsofgametheory
inunderonehundredpageswhenIwasstartingout.”
—DavidParkes,HarvardUniversity,ComputerScience
“Besidebeingconciseandrigorous,EssentialsofGameTheoryisalsoquitecomprehensive.It
includestheformulationsusedinmostapplicationsinengineeringandthesocialsciences,and
illustratestheconceptswithrelevantexamples.”
—RobertWilson,StanfordUniversity,GraduateSchoolofBusiness
“BestshortintroductiontogametheoryIhaveseen!IwishitwasavailablewhenIstartedbeing
interestedinthefield!”
—SilvioMicali,MIT,ComputerScience
“Although written by computer scientists, this book serves as a sophisticated introduction to
the main concepts and results of game theory from which other scientists, including social
scientists, can greatly benefit. In eighty pages, Essentials of Game Theory formally defines
key concepts, illustrated with apt examples, in both cooperative and noncooperative game
theory.”
—StevenBrams,NewYorkUniversity,PoliticalScience
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“Thisbookwillappealtoreaderswhodonotnecessarilyhailfromeconomics,andwhowanta
quickgraspofthefascinatingfieldofgametheory.Themaincategoriesofgamesareintroduced
inalucidwayandtherelevantconceptsareclearlydefined,withtheunderlyingintuitionsalways
provided.”
—KrzysztofApt,UniversityofAmsterdam,InstituteforLogic,
LanguageandComputation
“To a large extent, modern behavioral ecology and behavioral economics are studied in the
frameworkofgametheory.Studentsandfacultyalikewillfindthisconcise,rigorousandclear
introductiontothemainideasingametheoryimmenselyvaluable.”
—MarcusFeldman,StanfordUniversity,Biology
“Thisuniquebookistodaythebestshorttechnicalintroductiontogametheory.Accessibleto
a broad audience, it will prove invaluable in artificial intelligence, more generally in computer
science,andindeedbeyond.”
—MosheTennenholtz,Technion,IndustrialEngineeringandManagement
“Excerptedfromamuch-anticipated,cross-disciplinarybookonmultiagentsystems,thisterse,
incisive and transparent book is the ideal introduction to the key concepts and methods of
game theory for researchers in several fields, including artificial intelligence, networking, and
algorithms.”
—VijayVazirani,GeorgiaInstituteofTechnology,ComputerScience
“Theauthorsadmirablyachievetheiraimofprovidingascientistorengineerwiththeessentials
ofgametheoryinatextthatisrigorous,readableandconcise.”
—FrankKelly,UniversityofCambridge,StatisticalLaboratory
KEYWORDS
Game theory, multiagent systems, competition, coordination, Prisoner’s Dilemma: zero-sum
games, Nash equilibrium, extensive form, repeated games, stochastic games, Bayesian games,
coalitionalgames
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To my parents Anne and David Leyton-Brown... —KLB
To my parents Leila and Havis Stein... —YS
...with much love and thanks for all that you have taught us
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