Game Theory

John Baez

January 2, 2015

These are the notes for Math 121, the game theory course I'm teaching at U.C. Riverside, aimed at undergraduate math majors. The main prerequisites are knowing about vectors and matrices. If you click "on Azimuth", you'll go to a blog article where you can ask questions, see answers to some of the puzzles, and see what other people said about the notes.

• Part 1 - different kinds of games. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 2 - two-player normal form games. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 3 - Nash equilibria for pure strategies. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 4 - strict dominance for pure strategies. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 5 - homework problems (and cute pictures of dogs). Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 6 - the assumption of mutual rationality. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 7 - probabilities. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 8 - independence. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 9 - coin flips and binomial coefficients. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 10 - cards and binomial coefficients. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 11 - expected values, risk tolerance and risk aversion. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 12 - Nash equilibria for mixed strategies: definitions. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 13 - Nash equilibria for mixed strategies: an example. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 14 - the first test, and answers to the problems. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 15 - maximin strategies for zero-sum games. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 16 - security values and maximin strategies. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 17 - Nash equilibrium implies maximin. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 18 - maximin implies Nash equilibrium... sometimes! Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 19 - maximin always implies Nash equilibrium, and Nash equilibria always exist. Also available on Azimuth.
• Part 20 - von Neumann's maximin theorem, and conclusion. Also available on Azimuth.

© 2013 John Baez
baez@math.removethis.ucr.andthis.edu
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