game theory project, need in one week, assume 3 team members total
ECON 43
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Project Guidelines – Spring 2020
Your group for this project should agree upon a scenario to analyze using the tools we have discussed throughout
this course. This scenario can be anything that interests you, for example: a plot from a movie or tv, a story about
your favorite sports team, an interesting phenomenon you observe in the world and want to understand, or a model
from this class that you would like to extend. You should clearly outline your research question and write down a
game form that represents the scenario of interest. You should describe the players (you should have n ≥ 2), the
strategies for each player, and the payoffs of each player. You should also explain why the game form you write
down describes your scenario of interest. Your project can be a theory or experimental project. Your paper should
be a minimum of three pages (with standard formatting – no gigantic margins) and this can include any game forms
or figures you would like to include.
Theory: When you write down the game form for your scenario, you should start with a specific example
and do your best to generalize (i.e. starting with 2 players and payoffs such as 0 and 1 for the example and
then expanding the number of players or replacing the payoffs with x and y). If you have trouble generalizing your
game, you can find a real world example that is represented by your game form and analyze data from this example.
Experiment: You should use your game form to derive testable predictions. Your experiment should include:
instructions (note that you cannot deceive subjects!), incentives (I will have a raffle for a prize later in the semester
– you can let subject earn entries into the raffle), and an analysis of your results (including why you think they did
or did not match your predictions). Be sure to include an attachment of your instructions in your final write-up for
the project (these do NOT count as one of your three pages).
Note: Your project should be an original idea. This means, you should not turn in a project exactly replicating
an example from class, a paper or other lecture notes from game theory, or a project from another professor’s class
(without consent from that professor and Rachel). You may, however, EXTEND on existing ideas or use them for
inspiration. In either type of project, you should justify which solution concept you choose to use – or use multiple
solution concepts (SPE, NE, PBE) and discuss which results seem the most intuitive (unless they are the same). If
you are in a group, your teammates’ evaluations will be factored into your final project grade. Keep this in mind
when deciding to shirk!
Here is a list of ideas that might help inspire your project topic: Sports, Video Games, Repeated Games,
Bargaining Games, Contracting Games, Divorce, Voting, Politics, Firm Competition, Dating, Game of Thrones,
Game Shows, Board Games, Survivor, Auctions, Communication Games, Poker, Coordination Games, Evolution,
Pollution, Love Island, College Football Playoffs, Love is Blind, NBA Slam Dunk Contest, Commitment Mechanisms.
(You may instead take inspiration from other places – be as creative as you like!)
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