[lbo-talk] Game Theory question

[Michael Pollak]

On Tue, 27 Sep 2011, Ferenc Molnar wrote:


> Has Game Theory been applied to economics in a meaningful and useful 
> way?

FWIW, Yanis Varoufakis, a left economist who's basically the best 
commenter around on the euro mess, wrote a textbook on game theory:

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Theory-Introduction-Shaun-Hargreaves-Heap/dp/0415250951/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317170122&sr=1-4#_

I haven't read this one, but I'm looking forward to doing so, because I'm 
halfway through his textbook on political economy, and he's an absurdly 
lively writer.  His are the only textbooks where I find myself saying 
"Could you put that in a less colorful and amusing manner?  You're 
offending my sense of propriety."

Also FWIW, he recently applied game theory to explain why Europe's political
leadership could be rationally walking off a cliff:

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2011/08/12/on-europes-rational-idiocy-four-illustrations

Michael