Game Theory Evolving
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Gintis has wholeheartedly embraced the evolutionary approach to games. . . . The author is an accomplished economist raised in the classical mold, and his background shows in many aspects of the book . . . [He] has important things to say. . . . -- Karl Sigmund, Science
Game Theory Evolving is an exceptionally well-written and constructed introduction to the field. And with Gintis' outline of agent-based modeling and his tips for programming, many readers may be motivated to take up his invitation and experiment with a problem in evolutionary dynamics of their own. -- Jennifer M. Wilson, Mathematical Reviews
Game Theory Evolving is an exceptionally well-written and constructed introduction to the field. And with Gintis' outline of agent-based modeling and his tips for programming, many readers may be motivated to take up his invitation and experiment with a problem in evolutionary dynamics of their own. -- Jennifer M. Wilson, Mathematical Reviews
Karl Sigmund, Science
He himself has important things to say . . . .
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
As an Oxford University economics graduate student, I have struggled through mountains of textbook mediocrity seeking the optimal game theory pedagogue; Herb Gintis is, without a doubt, one of the best - if not the best - teachers of game theory. Forget Tirole. With basic knowledge of probability and calculus, one can reach the promised land of equilibrium enlightenment.
The key distinction between Gintis' approach, as opposed to other textbooks' approaches, is that Gintis uses crisp, clear language without going off on meaningless tangents. He also includes several problems, with partial answers at the back of the book. This makes "Game Theory Evolving" ideal for self-learning.
I cannot recommend this book enough if you wish to learn game theory. Everything is covered - from simple pure strategy games to principal-agent problems to evolutionary game theory. Get the 2nd edition though, as the 1st has a number of typos.
The key distinction between Gintis' approach, as opposed to other textbooks' approaches, is that Gintis uses crisp, clear language without going off on meaningless tangents. He also includes several problems, with partial answers at the back of the book. This makes "Game Theory Evolving" ideal for self-learning.
I cannot recommend this book enough if you wish to learn game theory. Everything is covered - from simple pure strategy games to principal-agent problems to evolutionary game theory. Get the 2nd edition though, as the 1st has a number of typos.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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23 reviews
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Basic toolkit for the evolutionary study of social behavior
18 Feb 2001
Format:Paperback
Herb Gintis is an economist with a strong interest in the assumptions we make about human rationality in our social, political, and economic theories. He has produced a remarkable and deceptively innovative text that could productively be used in a broad range of fields.
The topic of game theory is interesting to many people because it describes interaction between competitors, presumably helping us pick the best strategy if the circumstances are well enough understood. We might wonder whether the circumstances are well enough understood in daily life to apply the methods of game theory to our own choices, since it usually to assume that we are rational competitors trying to maximize our own gain.
Game Theory Evolving addresses this fascinating question not from a theoretical perspective so much as giving the reader the tools for investigating it themselves in two distinct but complementary ways.
First, it provides practical problem-oriented chapters for learning the principles and thinking in terms of game theoretic methods. The problems are not the usual textbook "who cares, anyway ?" type. Rather they are fun and interesting to solve and often lead to direct insights into real situations.
Second, it extends game theory into the realm of evolutionary thinking, so we not only understand strategic action but we get some deeper insight into how our historical needs shaped our behavior and even our thought processes. Game theory may help explain how we learned to cooperate and why under some conditions we tend to punish cheaters and treat people fairly even though it provides no apparent advantage to us.
Disguised as a lowly academic textbook, Game Theory Evolving is actually a basic toolkit, a passport into the remarkable modern study of evolutionary thinking about human nature, through a practical grounding in the mathematical techniques that have the potential to join our understanding of social sciences and biology.
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful
The first problem-oriented book in Game Theory
23 July 2000
Format:Paperback
Game Theory has to be taught with a strong enphasis on the developing the problem solving capabilities of the students, Nevertheless, the books you can find out there are very strong in the math and the theory but weak, incomplete, and poor in the problems. This is the first book I could find where the enphasis is made on the problems and on developing the capacities of the reader/student in the field, not just for theoretical purposes, where problems are more than useful, but also in the empirical aplications of game theory. Theory in this book emerges from the problems since all the chapters are developed as problems in themselves. It has also the probably the first extensive treatment in a textbook of evolutionary game theory. Given that this new field has become one of extensive research in the field lately, this becomes a major contribution to the teaching of game theory. And the best part is that is fun to read!
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Very useful for beginners
9 May 2005
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a terrific introductory textbook for game theory students, especially those lacking microeconomic background. The abundance of solved exercises help illustrate concepts that, if only explained conceptually, are likely to leave the reader confused. I'd recommend this for beginning students. For the students with more background, I'd recommend Osborne and Rubinstein. Only the students comfortable with the math should use Fudenberg/Tirole or Myerson.
I'm puzzled by the some of the criticisms presented here: all the notations are standard for the field and the basic concepts are laid out as clearly as any other text. If anything, the solved examples clarify the concepts much better than usual. At least one of the reviews (the review below) makes so little sense that makes me wonder if he even understood what he was reading: he's throwing about irrelevant jargon from communication theory (which has nothing to do with the basic game theory that the text mostly concerns itself with, especially the simple-minded example he's supposedly critiquing.). I'd pick this as the textbook for my intro class any day.
Having said that, the "evolving" in the title is somewhat misleading. This is a fairly introductory text for generic game theory, not really the evolutionary game theory which is more complicated creature. Gintis touches on some topics and provides some illustrations--more than most "basic" game theory texts, in fact, but not in depth. To learn the real deal, you will need more advanced texts such as Weibull. On the other hand, of course, they are much denser and will make a lot less sense.
I'm puzzled by the some of the criticisms presented here: all the notations are standard for the field and the basic concepts are laid out as clearly as any other text. If anything, the solved examples clarify the concepts much better than usual. At least one of the reviews (the review below) makes so little sense that makes me wonder if he even understood what he was reading: he's throwing about irrelevant jargon from communication theory (which has nothing to do with the basic game theory that the text mostly concerns itself with, especially the simple-minded example he's supposedly critiquing.). I'd pick this as the textbook for my intro class any day.
Having said that, the "evolving" in the title is somewhat misleading. This is a fairly introductory text for generic game theory, not really the evolutionary game theory which is more complicated creature. Gintis touches on some topics and provides some illustrations--more than most "basic" game theory texts, in fact, but not in depth. To learn the real deal, you will need more advanced texts such as Weibull. On the other hand, of course, they are much denser and will make a lot less sense.
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