Best Books on Game Theory for Dealing with Competitive Situations

Best Books on Game Theory

Game Theory is a social situation and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. There are many types of game theory from which symmetric/asymmetric, simultaneous/sequential, cooperative and noncooperative game theories are the most common. Applications of the game theory include psychology, evolutionary biology, war, politics, economics, and business. The game theory will sharpen your decision-making ability in many areas of your life. Here you will get some of the best books on game theory.

The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life
Author: Avinash K. Dixit,Barry J. Nalebuff
Published at: 04/01/2010
ISBN: 0393337170

The Art of Strategy is intended for those who are interested in learning game theory, specially for recent grads just getting into the business world and finding their way, who would like a better understanding of how to approach situations strategically rather than tactically, and also to anyone else who wants to become more adept at making good, strategic decisions in their day to day interactions.


This book provides you

  • The game theory which will sharpen your decision-making in many areas of your life
  • Simple but practical examples that help you understand the concepts
  • "Ten Tales of Strategy" which is a good summary of the whole book
  • Case studies, which again help to increase the knowledge of concepts


Some game theory strategies are

  • Art of backward reasoning
  • Prisoner's dilemma
  • Dominant strategy.


Game Theory 101: The Complete Textbook
Author: William Spaniel
Published at: 03/09/2011
ISBN: 1492728152

Game Theory 101 is a great helpful book along with the author's website and his youtube videos. William Spaniel  provides great examples and explains each idea so that any beginner can grasp the concepts quickly

What you'll get

  • Lots of essential and important concepts
  • Real-world examples
  • You'll know how to apply a matrix paradigm
  • You can connect the logic with classic game examples
  • Equations with actual calculations

This book is intended for

  • Recent grads just getting into the business world and finding their way
  • Anyone who is interested in learning Game Theory
  • Non-math experts with some basic understanding of algebra
  • Everyone who wants to deepen management skills
  • Good for anyone that wants to start thinking more logically
  • Anyone who wants to improve their decision-making process.


Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior
Author: John Von Neumann,Oskar Morgenstern
Published at: 23/03/2018
ISBN: 1983879371

Theory Of Games And Economic Behavior explains a lot of things about game theory makes discoveries between logical positivism, formal logic, choice sets, number theory, and binomial and multinomial outcomes. This book is awesome for those who want to take this seriously. This book has a great historical importance and compares the application of games to social behavior with similar progress in the Physical Sciences. that's why this is the best book on game theory.


This book contains

  • applications to Economics
  • Rational Behavior
  • The key notion of utility
  • Questions and complex proofs and much more


Introducing Game Theory: A Graphic Guide
Author: Ivan Pastine,Tuvana Pastine
Published at: 18/04/2017
ISBN: 1785780824
This is a great book to learn the basics of game theory which provides a good overview of the concepts, applications, and evolution of game theory. The text is clear and easy to understand and provides a foundation for further reading on the subject. This is a brilliant book for people from various fields such as economics, politics, sociology, management etc.

What you'll get

  • Everyday life examples help make the theory accessible to everyone
  • Enjoyment of reading
  • The "Very Short Introduction" series will do a better job of encapsulating a library of material into digestible bites
  • Non-mathematical approach with useful for reference
  • The idea of how to take a decision when the outcome of our moves depends on the decisions of someone else.


Twenty Lectures on Algorithmic Game Theory
Author: Tim Roughgarden
Published at: 31/08/2016
ISBN: 131662479X

Twenty Lectures on Algorithmic Game Theory provides real-world examples that help make the theory accessible to everyone. In this book, Tim Roughgarden focuses specifically on auctions, and how to design an auction mechanism that fulfills a variety of desirable criteria as well as being computationally tractable. The book is more about the math and the theory and includes case studies on online advertising, wireless spectrum auctions, kidney exchange, and network management.

Coverage includes

  • Introduction and examples
  • Mechanism design basics
  • Myerson's Lemma
  • Algorithmic mechanism design
  • Revenue-maximizing auctions
  • Simple near-optimal auctions
  • Multi-parameter mechanism design
  • Spectrum auctions
  • Mechanism design with payment constraints
  • Kidney exchange and stable matching
  • Selfish routing and the price of anarchy
  • Network over-provisioning and atomic selfish routing
  • Equilibria: definitions, examples, and existence
  • Robust price-of-anarchy bounds in smooth games
  • Best-case and strong Nash equilibria
  • Best-response dynamics
  • No-regret dynamics
  • Swap regret and the Minimax theorem
  • Pure Nash equilibria and PLS-completeness
  • Mixed Nash equilibria and PPAD-completeness.



Game Theory: A Playful Introduction (Student Mathematical Library)
Author: Matt Devos,Deborah A. Kent
Published at: 27/12/2016
ISBN: 1470422107

Game Theory designed as a textbook for an undergraduate mathematics class and is intended for Instructors, students, and independent readers. This clear, concise, and interesting book allowed you to understand the conceptual basis as well as the math and is adaptable to a variety of situations and a range of audiences.

This book provides you

  • A great introduction to the mathematics of both combinatorial and classical sides of a game theory
  • The first four chapters give an introduction to game trees and mathematical induction
  • The last eight chapters offer a scenic journey through the mathematical highlights of classical game theory
  • Zero-sum games and the von Neumann Minimax Theorem
  • A student-friendly development and proof of the Nash Equilibrium Theorem
  • The folk theorem
  • Arrow's voting paradox
  • Evolutionary biology and
  • Cake cutting.


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