Zack Grossman's home page

Zachary J. Grossman

Assistant Professor

Department of Economics

University of California, Santa Barbara

Econ 171 - Introduction to Game Theory
Spring 2010

Time & Place: TR 2 - 3:15pm, 1260 Phelps

Office Hours: R 12:30 - 1:30pm, NH 3049

Syllabus

Announcements Slides & Handouts Practice Problems Problem Sets

Announcements:

Here is the final exam that you just took, as well as a version with solutions. (6/8)

Extra OH tomorrow (Fri), 2-3pm. Here is practice final exam and accompanying solutions. Note: you can expect not to have a question like number 4, on repeated games on your exam. Also, you can expect a slightly shorter exam. Finally, here are some practice questions (with solutions) on PBE. (6/3)

PS3 solutions are up. (6/1)

PS3 is now posted. (5/19)

Here are the slides from today's class. Note that there is a challenge question at the bottom. You will receive credit for submitting an answer and even more credit for submitting a correct one by Wednesday at 10pm. I recommend practicing some easy Watson problems first, e.g the guided exercise on page 315, or exercise 3a. Don't do the rationalizability parts, just find the Bayesian Nash Equilibria. (5/18)

Here is the exam you just took, with and without the answers. (5/13)

I've posted an old exam (and solutions) to help you practice for the midterm on Thursday. Note: you should not expect to see questions like 3 and 4 on the test. The coverage in the previous class was slightly different. (5/10)

PS2 solutions are posted. (5/6)

Extra OH: Wednesday, May 5, 2-3pm. (5/4)

I apologize for the last minute cancellation of OH and class today. Instead of using posted notes on bargaining in place of today's class, we will resume class on Tuesday with bargaining. (4/29)

Please bring your midterm back into class on Thursday. Two reasons: 1) I've calculated the true winner of the "guess 2/3 of the average" game that you played on midterm. I have the winning number but need to identify the person who chose that number. 2) One of you brought to my attention a mistake in posted solution to one of the problems on the midterm. Some of you may have answered that problem correctly, but had it marked as incorrect. If you did get it right, I'd like to give you credit (more points) for doing so. (4/28)

PS2 is posted. Note that the due-date has been changed to Tuesday, May 6. Also note the revision of the schedule of upcoming classes and problem sets, updated on both the syllabus and the PS schedule below. (4/28)

Here is the midterm you took. Here is a copy that includes the answers. (4/21)

Here are some notes on applications of Nash Equilibrium. They are quite extensive. For now, you may wish to focus only on the very end, where you can find the explanation of how to find the symmetric MSNE in the crime-stoppers/public-goods game that we looked at in class. The first section on oligopoly includes some the Cournot model analysis that we did and you can see that rationalizability yields a unique solutions in the duopoly case. (4/16)

PS1 solutions are posted. Later tonight I will post some notes explaining how to find the symmetric MSNE in the crime-stoppers/public-goods game we analyzed in class. (4/15)

I've been exchanging emails tonight with students working on the PS. For everyone's benefit, here are some of the questions, along with my responses. (4/14)

I've posted slides containing the games we've been looking at in class, plus the definitions of NE, MSNE. Also posted is the first midterm exam from Fall 2008, as well as solutions. (4/13)

I've pushed back the due date for PS1. It is now due on Thursday, 4/15. The syllabus and the PS schedule (below) have been updated. (4/8)

I fixed a typo in the header above. My OH are now correct as posted. The times listed on the syllabus were always correct. (4/7)

PS1 is posted. See table below for relevant dates. (4/1)

The Undergraduate Office informs me that the official pre-requisites for Econ 171 were changed last Fall. Now, the only pre-requisite is that you have to have been accepted into the Econ major, which means that need to have completed Econ 1, 2, 10A, Math3AB, and Pstat5E. I have revised the syllabus to reflect this. The important change is that Math3C and Econ 134A are not pre-requisites anymore. (3/31)

Updated slides used for first 2 lectures, posted Handout on Normal Form Games, plus some notes to go along with Lecture 2. (3/31)

Slides for first lecture are posted. (3/30)

The syllabus is posted. (3/29)

Slides & Handouts:

Intro (3/30) Updated for 4/1 class

Handout on Normal Form Games (3/30)

Notes for lecture 2 (4/1)

Slides on Nash Equilibrium, Mixed-strategy Nash Equililbrium

Notes on applications of Nash Equilibrium (4/16)

Practice Problems:

Exam 1 from Fall 2008, without and with solutions. (4/13)

Exam 1 from this quarter, without and with solutions. (4/21)