Game theory (HWS 2024/25)

Manuscript and lectures (as videos) by Prof. Dr. C. Hertling.
Exercises (in presence) by Prof. Dr. C. Hertling.
Manuscript + videos on it and the 13 exercise sheets are on the ILIAS account of the course. Participants should enroll there.

Manuscript and lectures

A manuscript is available on the ILIAS account of the course.

The lectures are offered as videos, made by Prof. Dr. C. Hertling for the course in the autumn 2020. That course took place in 12 weeks. The videos still show the dates and the weeks. Please ignore them. The names of the videos show which points of the manuscript are treated in them. The videos are available on the ILIAS account of the course and on the youtube channel Mathe Mannheim.

The following partition of the manuscript and videos into weeks is recommended (in order to solve the exercises of each week), but you are free to go through the material faster.
02.-06.09.2024: 2.1 – 2.17.
09.-13.09.2024: 2.18 – 2.31.
16.-20.09.2024: 2.32 – 2.42.
23.-27.09.2024: 3.1 – 3.10.
30.09.-04.10.2024: 3.11 – 3.12 without (e) + 3.13 + 3.16.
07.-11.10.2024: 3.12(e) + 3.14 + 3.15 + 3.17 – 3.22.
14.-18.10.2024: 4.1 – 4.11.
21.-25.10.2024: 5.1 – 5.13.
28.-31.10.2024: 5.14 – 5.21(ii).
04.-08.11.2024: 5.21(iii) – 5.31.
11.-15.11.2024: 5.32 – 5.40 without the general proof of 5.38.
18.-22.11.2024: General proof of 5.38 + 5.41 + 6.1 – 6.12.
25.-29.11.2024: 6.13 – 6.26 without proof of 6.26.
02.-06.12.2024: Proof of 6.26 + 6.28.

Exercise sessions

Prof. Dr. C. Hertling, Thursday 13:45–15:15, from 12.09. until 05.12.2024, in A5 C013.

Solutions to the weekly exercises will be explained in these exercise sessions.
The 03.10.2024 is a public holiday. Whether and if yes how to replace the exercise session in this week, will be discussed before.

Exercises

On each Thursday from 05.09.2024 to 28.11.2024, there will be a new sheet of exercises on ILIAS. All participants are advised to work out the exercises. They are integral part of the course. They complement the lectures by giving examples, and they give the chance to work yourself through typical arguments.
There will be 13 sheets altogether. Each will be worth 16 points. Up to two people can submit solutions together, until Thursday at 13:35 one week later, digitally via ILIAS or in paper form in a box in the entrance of the C-part in A5. Official solutions will be discussed on the same Thursday at 13:45–15:15. The students' solutions will be graded as fast as possible. The results will be on ILIAS resp. (for the submissions in the box in A5) in the exercise lecture next Thursday.
In order to be allowed to take part in the exam, one has to reach 13x8 = 104 points in the exercises.

Exam

The exam is a written exam of 90 min. For participation in the exam, one had to reach 13x8=104 points in the exercises. Some old exams are on ILIAS.
The first exam was on December 09, 2024, at 14:00–15:30 in M003. The grades of the 1st exam are now on the portal. The first exam with solutions, a translation from points into grades and a histogram with the grades are on ILIAS. Klausureinsicht: On 16.12.2024 at 13:45–14:45 in A5, C013.
The second exam was on 05 February 2025, at 08:30–10:00 in A5 B243. The grades of the 2nd exam are now on the portal.

Literature

There are many good books on game theory. The book of von Neumann and Morgenstern founded game theory. The other books listed had been useful in preparing the course.

Walter Schlee: Einführung in die Spieltheorie. Mit Beispielen und Aufgaben. Vieweg Verlag, 2004.

Ken Binmore: Game theory. A very short introduction. Oxford University Press, 2007.

J. Gonzalez-Diaz, I. Garcia-Jurado, M.G. Fiestras-Janeiro: An introductory course on mathematical game theory. Graduate Studies in Mathematics vol. 115, AMS, 2010.

John von Neumann, Oskar Morgenstern: Theory of games and economic behaviour. Princeton University Press, 1944.

Manfred J. Holler, Gerhard Illing: Einführung in die Spieltheorie. Springer Verlag, 2006 (6. Auflage).

Siegfried K. Berninghaus, Karl-Martin Ehrhart, Werner Güth: Strategische Spiele. Springer Verlag, 2010 (3. Auflage).