Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict

Rating:
Summary: Game Theory : Analysis of Conflict
Review: I found this book very helpful in my first year of the Ph D in Economics. I also have used MasColell and Kreps but Myerson was the only one that actually help me understanding complicated concepts as the always Hard Sequential Equilibrium. It is the only book that covers both, sequential and Perfect equilibrium with examples and solutions so that you understand what is going on. If you are willing to buy a Game Theory book I will definitely go for this one. If that is not enough you should also see that the cost benefit ratio of Myerson's book is undoubtly the best of any other one.

Adrian Peralta. Graduate Student University of Minnesota Economics Department

Rating:
Summary: Game Theory : Analysis of Conflict
Review: I found this book very helpful in my first year of the Ph D in Economics. I also have used MasColell and Kreps but Myerson was the only one that actually help me understanding complicated concepts as the always Hard Sequential Equilibrium. It is the only book that covers both, sequential and Perfect equilibrium with examples and solutions so that you understand what is going on. If you are willing to buy a Game Theory book I will definitely go for this one. If that is not enough you should also see that the cost benefit ratio of Myerson's book is undoubtly the best of any other one.

Adrian Peralta. Graduate Student University of Minnesota Economics Department

Rating:
Summary: An Elegant and Deep Treatment
Review: I just completed a game theory book (Game Theory Evolving, Princeton University Press, 2000). To find the best way to present various materials, I went through virtually every game theory book in existence. For the presentation of the basic material on normal and extensive form games, nothing even came close to this book in clarity of presentation and depth of understanding of the issues. Most textbooks, even highly touted ones that are mathematically challenging, do not even come close, and rarely even present the material in a coherent form at all.

I used to do a lot of carpentry, and I always knew the good carpenters from the run of the mill. The latter talk about how to build stuff. The good ones talked about how you choose, preserve, treat, and sharpen your tools. Myerson is, for game theory, like the good carpenter, and this book is more about the nature of the tools of game theory than their deployment--although it is certainly that, too.

The subtitle of this book is silly ("The Analysis of Conflict"). Game theory is the analysis of cooperation as much as conflict, and much, much else as well. So is this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book for Learning Pure Game Theory
Review: Myerson's book is fantastic. For learning the *theory* of game theory, it is the best book available. Virtually every important topic in game theory is treated at some point in the book (though students are not always beaten over the head with their names).

The plan is well thought out and has some interesting innovations. For example, incomplete information is well integrated and permeates the text in many places, rather than one or a couple chapters. However, beacuse of this -- while the book is superb for learning and developing understanding -- it is not always the best reference. Some topics are not available in one easily indexed locations. (On the other hand, other topics like bargaining and zero sum games are treated in the usual discrete way.)

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: This book is a masterpiece: it goes from the simple and straightforward (with examples of sequential equilibria) to technical and challenging material (such as the Mertens-Zamir type space). I own Fudenberg-Tirole and Osborne-Rubinstein, but it is Myerson that gets picked up the most. What I find most rewarding is that Myerson introduces everything gently, working from examples to build a general theory.

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: This book is a masterpiece: it goes from the simple and straightforward (with examples of sequential equilibria) to technical and challenging material (such as the Mertens-Zamir type space). With Myerson's book around, there really is no reason to buy Fudenberg-Tirole (unless you want more breadth) or Osborne-Rubinstein (unless you seek stuff on knowledge and automata representations). I own all these books, but it is Myerson that gets picked up the most.

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Summary: still on the frontier because of disinformation
Review: This book is not good only because it explains all well known difficult concepts which noone so far has been able to explain clearly and rigourosly in one book but for new important topics that are less known for the majority of game theorists. I'm refering to the idea of networks and cooperation structures and also cooperation under uncertainty with the idea of virtual utility.

Rating:
Summary: not bad
Review: very comprehensive book. Covers pretty much everything. It's supposed to be a graduate text but undergrads can handle it as long as they know some math and aren't too scared by all the notation. Oh and Myerson is nice guy too.