Game Theory I

*Taught Online for Summer 2021*  The origins of game theory in political science reach back to the arms race at the height of the cold war. Since then, it’s applications in political science have proliferated to explaining regime transitions, civil war conduct, and even climate change.

This quarter will be taught as an introduction to applications of game theory in Political Science. It will be centered on topics of electoral competition, allocation of public goods, political lobbying, voting in legislatures, and the formation of government coalitions.

We will cover basic solution concepts, including the Nash Equilibrium and the Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium.

Many other game theorists have been recognized by the Swedish Academy, including, Roger Myerson, Robert Aumann, Amartya Sen, Eleanor Ostrom, Jean Tirole and most recently, in 2020, Paul Milgram and Richard Wilson.