Game Theory at Work(c) How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition

ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A

Year: 2005
Pages: 260

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Table of Contents
BackCover
Game Theory at Work - How to Use Game Theory to Outthink and Outmaneuver Your Competition
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Introduction
What Exactly Is Game Theory?
Chapter 2: Threats, Promises, and Sequential Games
Controlling a Wild Daughter
Eliminating Options
Asking for a Raise
Relinquishing Control
Cutting Off Communications
Kidnapping, Blackmail, and Honesty
When Businesses Should Be Honest
Deadline Difficulties
Criminal Compensation
Forgiveness
Corporate Takeovers and Poison Pills
Games Governments Play with the Pharmaceutical Industry
Frightening Many with One Threat
The Benefits of Insanity
Entry Deterrence
Chain Store Paradox
Entry Deterrence Through Insanity
Sane Methods of Entry Deterrence
Reading People
The Dangers of Price Competition
Lessons Learned
Chapter 3: The Dangers of Price Competition
Stopping Price Wars with Credible Threats
Internet Price Competition
Using Complication to Reduce Price Competition
Retail Price Maintenance
Simultaneous Games
Lessons Learned
Chapter 4: Simultaneous Games
A Billionaire s Political Strategy
More Challenging Simultaneous Games
Chapter 5: Massive Coordination Games
Attack of the Clones: An Extremely Brief History of the Personal Computer Industry
Success, Failure, and Network Externalities
Competing Against Microsoft and Intel
Java s Threat to Microsoft
Externalities in Word Processing Programs
Where We Live
Online Bulletin Boards
VHS versus Beta
Video Game Wars
ATT Creates Network Externalities
High-Definition TV
Money
Lotteries and Sports
Coordination
Nash Equilibrium
Lessons Learned
Chapter 6: Nash Equilibria
Nash Equilibrium Pricing Games
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam
Competing on the Line
Shoe Stores
Nash Equilibrium
Prisoners Dilemma
Lessons Learned:
Chapter 7: Prisoners Dilemma
Pricing Dilemmas
Evaluating Dilemmas
The Evaluated Ones Dilemma
Professional Sports Dilemma
CEO Recruitment
Contract Law s Solution to Prisoners Dilemma
Do the Rich Always Want To Win Legal Cases?
Accountants Honesty
Oilmen s Dilemma
Why Do We Get In Taxicabs?
Run Away, Run Away
Nuclear Dilemma
Tragedy of the Commons
Repeated Prisoners Dilemma with a Last Period
Envy, the Deadliest of Sins
Implicit Agreements
Cooperation in the Trenches
Hidden Actions
Benefiting from Prisoners Dilemma
Most-Favored-Customer Agreements
Evolution and Prisoners Dilemma
What to Do When Trapped in a Prisoners Dilemma?
Self-interest Leads to Bad Outcomes
Lessons Learned
Chapter 8: Adverse Selection
Telemarketing Investment Advice
Used Cars
Old Coins Sold on eBay
Fire Some Rather Than Cut Wages for All
Security Deposits and Selection for Deadbeats
Mildly Careless Banks
Failure to Settle Lawsuits
At a Great Bargain, Pause.
Adverse Selection, Child Predators, Dictators, and Presidents
Selection for Stock Analysts
Rational Pessimism
More Tales of Hidden Information
Lessons Learned
Chapter 9: Surviving with Limited Information
Bring Me a Shrubbery
Brand Names
Education and Signaling
Signaling and Racism
Signaling Fitness
Warranties
Signal Jamming
Valentine s Day
Celebrity Endorsements
Sexual Information Strategies
The Sound of Silence
Putting People Under Pressure
Lines
Valuing Options
Which Came First?
Price Discrimination
Lessons Learned
Chapter 10: Price Discrimination and Other Pricing Strategies
Movie Prices
Financial Aid
A Hint to College Students and Their Parents
Self-Selection, Price Discrimination, and Greek Mythology
Self-Selection of Customers
All-You-Can-Eat Pricing
Bundling
Pricing Games
Holdups
Lessons Learned
Chapter 11: Holdups
Software Holdups
Airlines
Many Attempts, Few Successes: Holdups in the Music Industry
Artificial Actors
Weaponizing Patent Law
Firm-Specific Human Capital
Specific Versus General Investments
Fisher Body and General Motors
Optimal Size of Firms
Fate and Choice
Other People s Money
Lessons Learned
Chapter 12: Spending Other People s Money
Frequent Flyer Miles
Spending Students Money
Bribing Pilots
Conferences in Exotic Locations
Selfish Charity
Political Bribes
Splitting Bills
Insurance
Co-Payments
HMOs
Insurance as Gambling
Information Problems
Search and Rescue
Too Many Risks
Deposit Insurance
Flood Insurance
Lifetime Employment
Discrimination
Genetic Testing and the Dismal Future of the Health Insurance Industry
The Power of the Purse
Managing Employees
Lessons Learned
Chapter 13: Managing Employees
Attorney Fee Structures
Doctors and HMOs
Taxes and Incentives to Work
Tenant Farmers
Outside Contracts
Venture Capitalists
Free Rider Games
The Agency Problem, Stock Market Manipulation, and Enron
The Benefits of Trade and Optimal Allocation of Employees
Employee Management
Negotiations
Lessons Learned
Chapter 14: Negotiations
Take-It-or-Leave-It Offers
Bring Another Party to the Negotiations
Giving Up Control
Brinksmanship
Goals of Negotiations
Auctions
Lessons Learned
Chapter 15: Auctions
First Price Sealed-Bid Auctions
Second Price Sealed-Bid Auctions (Slightly Technical)
Cheating with False Bids
Winner s Curse
Internal Auctions
Negative Auctions
Benefit of Auctions
The Stock Market
Lessons Learned
Chapter 16: The Stock Market
Stock Market Commentators
The Future Is Now
Short-Run Holders Should Care About the Long Term Too
Risk Versus Return
The Return on Art
Survivorship Bias in Mutual Fund Reports
Conclusion
Lessons Learned
Chapter 17: Further Readings and References
Further Readings in Economics
Appendix: Study Questions
Chapter 3. The Dangers of Price Competition
Chapter 4. Simultaneous Games
Chapter 5. Massive Coordination Games
Chapter 6. Nash Equilibria
Chapter 7. Prisoners Dilemma
Chapter 8. Adverse Selection
Chapter 9. Surviving with Limited Information
Notes
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Index
Index_B
Index_C
Index_D
Index_E
Index_F
Index_G
Index_H
Index_I
Index_J
Index_K
Index_L
Index_M
Index_N
Index_O
Index_P
Index_R
Index_S
Index_T
Index_U
Index_V
Index_W
Index_X
Index_Y
List of Figures
List of Tables