While the economic model of perfect competition assumes that prices and profits are determined by the invisible hand of the market and individuals take them as given, in markets that are not perfectly competitive there is more room for bargaining and strategic interaction. Game theory analyzes situations where there is strategic interaction, where the outcomes for one individual depend on the choices made by another individual. Such situations occur not only in economics, but also in politics and biology, and in everyday life. This class will examine a variety of games and their equilibrium outcomes. This class will require mathematical reasoning, but will not require calculus.
