Theory seminar presented by Don Saari (UC Irvine)

“Games” can be very complex.  This reality is discovered by anyone trying to create a large number of games to use for  lab experiments that have, say, the same Nash structure but include other distracting features, or an unusual game to illustrate a point in a paper or lecture.  Games are typically analyzed in an ad hoc fashion, which means that connections among them need not be obvious; e.g., how are the Battle of the Sexes, Hawk-Dove, and Stag Hunt related and what causes all differences?  Then, discovering new theoretical conclusions can be difficult.  As shown in this lecture, all of these difficulties are relaxed by introducing an appropriate, easily used  “coordinate system for games.”