Preface to the first edition, 2015
After teaching game theory (at both the undergraduate and graduate level) at the
University of California, Davis for 25 years, I decided to organize all my teaching material
in a textbook. There are many excellent textbooks in game theory and there is hardly any
need for a new one. However, there are two distinguishing features of this textbook: (1) it
is open access and thus free,
1
and (2) it contains an unusually large number of exercises
with complete and detailed answers.
I tried to write the book in such a way that it would be accessible to anybody with
minimum knowledge of mathematics (high-school level algebra and some elementary
notions of probability) and no prior knowledge of game theory. However, the book is
intended to be rigorous and it includes several proofs. I believe it is appropriate for an
advanced undergraduate class in game theory and also for a first-year graduate-level class.
I expect that there will be some typos and (hopefully minor) mistakes. If you come
across any typos or mistakes, I would be grateful if you could inform me: I can be reached
at gfbonanno@ucdavis.edu. I will maintain an updated version of the book on my web
page at
http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/bonanno/
I also intend to add, some time in the future, a further collection of exercises and exam
questions with detailed answers. Details will appear on my web page.
I am very grateful to Elise Tidrick for meticulously going through each chapter of
the book and for suggesting numerous improvements. Her insightful and constructive
comments have considerably enhanced this book.
I would also like to thank Nicholas Bowden, Lester Lusher, Burkhard Schipper,
Matthieu Stigler, Sukjoon Lee, Minfei Xu and Pedro Paulo Funari for pointing out typos.
1
There may be several other free textbooks on game theory available. The only one I am aware of is the
excellent book by Ariel Rubinstein and Martin Osborne, MIT Press, 1994, which can be downloaded for free
from Ariel Rubinstein’s web page:
http://arielrubinstein.tau.ac.il
. In my experience this book
is too advanced for an undergraduate class in game theory.
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