Publications

September 2023
Article

A Pull versus Push Framework for Reputation

By: Jillian J. Jordan

Reputation is a powerful driver of human behavior. Reputation systems incentivize 'actors' to take reputation-enhancing actions, and 'evaluators' to reward actors with positive reputations by preferentially cooperating with them. This article proposes a reputation... View Details

Keywords: Reputation; Behavior; Game Theory

June 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Exercise

Competition Simulator Exercise: Instructions

By: Eric Van den Steen

In the Competition Simulator Exercise, students explore through trial and error some important economic foundations of competitive strategy and managerial economics. In particular, the nine simulator exercises let students explore horizontal differentiation with and... View Details

Keywords: Competitive Strategy; Economics; Strategy; Game Theory

June 1986
Article

A Supergame Theoretic Model of Price Wars During Booms

By: J. J. Rotemberg and Garth Saloner

Keywords: Game Theory; Price

December 2014
Article

Selecting the Best? Spillover and Shadows in Elimination Tournaments

By: Jennifer Brown and Dylan B. Minor

We consider how past, current, and future competition within an elimination tournament affect the probability that the stronger player wins. We present a two-stage model that yields the following main results: (1) a shadow effect—the stronger the expected future... View Details

Keywords: Elimination Tournament; Dynamic Contest; Contest Design; Effort Choice; Betting Markets; Competitive Advantage; Game Theory

January 2014
Article

Pareto Efficiency in Robust Optimization

By: Dan Iancu and Nikolaos Trichakis

This paper formalizes and adapts the well-known concept of Pareto eﬃciency in the context of the popular robust optimization (RO) methodology for linear optimization problems. We argue that the classical RO paradigm need not produce solutions that possess the... View Details

Keywords: Robust Optimization; Pareto Optimality; Resource Allocation; Game Theory

24 Mar 2008
Research & Ideas

Reducing Risk with Online Advertising

readily gameable. If you need to sell one more unit and you can't find anyone to buy it, buy it for yourself or for your buddy. Because these systems can be gamed, firms spend extra money on online advertising. That money might be better spent in increasing... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Video Game; Video Game

Article

Buyer-Initiated vs. Seller-Initiated Information Revelation

Sales presentations are the core of the selling process where salespeople provide information to prospects. One challenge is that the amount of information available to be potentially communicated may exceed salespeople's ability to communicate or customers' ability to... View Details

Keywords: Information; Quality; Marketing Communications; Game Theory; Sales

2008
Working Paper

Stability and Nash Implementation in Matching Markets with Couples

By: Claus-Jochen Haake and Bettina-Elisabeth Klaus

We consider two-sided matching markets with couples. First, we extend a result by Klaus and Klijn (2005, Theorem 3.3) and show that for any weakly responsive couples market there always exists a "double stable" matching, i.e., a matching that is stable for the couples... View Details

Keywords: Marketplace Matching; Balance and Stability; Game Theory

05 Feb 2014
Research & Ideas

Can Putin Score Olympic Gold?

A pall hangs over Sochi. Not since the bribery scandal overshadowed the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City has an Olympic Winter Games been so fraught with controversy. Fears of a terrorist attack by Islamic... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Sports; Advertising

10 Jul 2024
News

Next Level

Gina Joseph (GMP 29, 2020), chief strategy officer for the technology media company VentureBeat, was recently honored by the San Francisco Business Times in their “40 Under 40” issue. Joseph is thriving in the media, tech, and gaming... View Details

Keywords: Catherine O’Neill Grace

Fast Answer

Gaming: statistics

Where can I find information on gaming hardware and software? The Entertainment Software Association website lists sales, demographic, and usage data, as well as information intended to improve the image of the industry. Search eMarketer... View Details

June 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Technical Note

Strategic Complements and Substitutes

By: Eric Van den Steen

The framework of strategic complements and substitutes can help companies anticipate competitors' responses. It is particularly helpful in deciding on price- or capacity-commitments (or pre-emption), but it can provide more general guidance for analyzing the potential... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Strategic Substitutes; Strategic Complements; Puppy Dog Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Game Theory; Strategy; Economics

Educators

2010
Working Paper

Overconfidence by Bayesian Rational Agents

By: Eric Van den Steen

This paper derives two mechanisms through which Bayesian-rational individuals with differing priors will tend to be relatively overconfident about their estimates and predictions, in the sense of overestimating the precision of these estimates. The intuition behind one... View Details

Keywords: Risk and Uncertainty; Measurement and Metrics; Game Theory; Forecasting and Prediction

February 2009
Teaching Note

Microsoft Xbox: Changing the Game? (TN)

By: Andrei Hagiu

Teaching Note for [707501]. View Details

Keywords: Video Game Industry; Texas

August 1985 (Revised November 1987)
Background Note

Videogame Design Process

The videogame industry grew explosively in the early 1980s. It is an example of a business which is highly dependent on the efforts of creative people. Videogame companies have shown a wide variation in their approach to managing creative resources, seen in such terms... View Details

Keywords: Management; Creativity; Video Game Industry

Article

Heuristics Guide the Implementation of Social Preferences in One-Shot Prisoner's Dilemma Experiments

By: Jillian J. Jordan, Valerio Capraro and David G. Rand

Cooperation in one-shot anonymous interactions is a widely documented aspect of human behavior. Here we shed light on the motivations behind this behavior by experimentally exploring cooperation in a one-shot continuous-strategy Prisoner’s Dilemma (i.e. one-shot... View Details

Keywords: Human Behavior; Social Evolution; Behavior; Cooperation; Decision Making; Game Theory