As seen on Big Brother (Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction - Ken Binmore)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction - Ken Binmore
Date:	02/11/08 (283 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting insight

Disadvantages: Written in a very academic style

During my long school holidays I like to mix and match my reading material, some of the books I read will be fiction, usually psychological crime mysteries or humorous writing and I combine this with some non fiction which is usually linked to the subjects I teach, Economics or Business Studies. I have always had an interest in Game Theory which is one of the harder more challenging strands of Economics particularly as it is firmly grounded in mathematical analysis and theory and as such the methodology used is somewhat beyond my comprehension at times but I can appreciate its application and relevance within economic theory and practice.

Game Theory A Very Short Introduction is written by Ken Binmore who is a Professor of Economics and University College London and he has also taught at the LSE and is well placed to talk about game theory given he was the lead economist on one of the most successful applications of game theory ever, the auction of the mobile phone networks which earned the Treasury a whopping $35 billion, money that was then spent on services for the UK taxpayer.

Game Theory in its simplest terms is the study of games and how those participants would play each game rationally. From this understanding the knowledge can be used to predict how people would react, one of its greatest proponents was John Von Neumann whose strategic advice guided Kennedy and other Presidents through the cold war, Von Neumann would actually be described as a hawk, it is believed by many a man prepared to press the button however for Von Neumann what was important was that the other side believed he would press the button and acted accordingly rather than whether he would have actually done the deed and consigned us all to nuclear Armageddon.

My own contact with Game Theory came in a rather more down to earth way in the persona of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson who won the 2000 World Series of Poker playing no limit Texas hold-em using game theory to decide his betting patterns. For the majority of people game theory would be even more subtle but anyone who watched this year Big Brother or who watch the game show Goldenballs will have seen Game Theory in action in the final round which is a version of one of the easiest games to understand, The Prisoners Dilemma.

I was hoping that this book would be a nice gentle introduction into Game Theory, the cover described it as lively and it is a thin book at only 174 pages however this is slightly misleading as the text is rather small and the book is very detailed, in fact it is quite heavy going from the earliest pages and a bit academic in the style of writing which means that it is not very accessible to the layman. I find myself really having to concentrate when I read this book, it was no good trying to read it if I was tired as I would be in danger of nodding off, I found I tended to read it in the mornings when I was most alert and even then I found myself having to retrace my steps to ensure I understood something fully before progressing into any of the more in depth analysis.

Game Theory does lend itself to diagrammatic explanations and a number of these are used in the book, these are quite basically drawn and while clear one of the things I found was that sometimes the diagram was not on the same page as the text that related to it, this meant you were looking forward or even in one case looking at the wrong figure which made it harder to understand. For me these diagrams really needed explaining as they are drawn rather than being explained after the whole thing has been drawn, this is something the written median would struggle with and is something that would be clearer delivered in person or by video clip.

On the plus side the book is very comprehensive and those chapters that deal with the actual application of Game Theory are excellent, Binmore own personal success in this area lends credence to his opinions and also give an insider insight to the construction of the auctions especially given the failure of ones constructed by others on the continent and North America. The chapter on auctions was fascinating as was the chapter on Evolutionary Biology and this show the links between the maths, economics, philosophy and psychology that go into Game Theory.

As a book this is definitely one aimed at someone with a passion for economics and while I would recommend it as further reading for my A-level students it would only be or those intending to study the subject at University I found it a struggle at times and certainly I had to frequently re-cap what had gone before therefore it is not a book I would recommend to the majority of members on this site however as an introduction to Game Theory for those interested in it then it is worth reading.

Published by Oxford University Press the rrp is £7.99 however on Amazon it is £6.79 new and from £2.79 in the new and used section. The ISBN is 978-0-19-921846-2. The book is part of a series of over 200 publications in The Very Short Introduction series with topics ranging from Buddhism to The Tudors and I have added a couple to my reading list for topics I would like to know more about.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: One for economists only probably.