Non-zero-sum Game Theory

Tutorial Slides by Andrew Moore

Auctions and electronic negotiations are a fascinating topic. These slides take you through most of the basic story of the assumptions, the formalism and the mathematics behind non-zero-sum game theory. It might help you to begin by reading the slides on game-tree search and Zero-sum Game theory with Hidden information available from this same set of tutorials. In this tutorial we cover the definition of a multiplayer non-zero-sum game, domination of strategies, Nash Equilibia. We deal with discrete games, and also games in which strategies include real numbers, such as your bid in a two player double auction negotiation. We cover prisoner's dilemma, tragedy of the commons, double auctions, and multi-player auctions such as the first price sealed auction and the second price auction. The math for the double auction analysis can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~awm/double_auction_math.pdf .

Download Tutorial Slides (PDF format)

Powerpoint Format: The Powerpoint originals of these slides are freely available to anyone who wishes to use them for their own work, or who wishes to teach using them in an academic institution. Please email Andrew Moore at awm@cs.cmu.edu if you would like him to send them to you. The only restriction is that they are not freely available for use as teaching materials in classes or tutorials outside degree-granting academic institutions.

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