Office hours: See MyUni

Office location: Nexus 10, Level 4, Room 4.29

 

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1	Identify strategic situations and represent them as games
2	Solve simple games using various techniques
3	Analyse economic situations using game theoretic techniques
4	Recommend and prescribe which strategies to implement

Textbook:

Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory, by Joel Watson, W. W.Norton & Company, 3rd edition

An Introduction to Game Theory, by Martin J. Osborne, Oxford University Press, USA (August 1, 2003)

Games of Strategy, Second Edition, by Avinash K. Dixit and Susan Skeath, W. W. Norton & Company; 2 edition (April 2004)

This course uses MyUni intensively and you are required to check the website regularly.

https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/webapps/login/ 

Course material such as lectures notes, assignments, and assignment answer guides are available under MyUni. Also, a discussion board will be available for questions you may want to ask your lecturer or fellow classmates.

Game theory is best learnt through practice and hence, your attendance to and participation in workshops and tutorials is expected. 

Course Material:
All course material will be posted on MyUni.

Workshops:
Sessions will be interactive and are designed to be delivered face-to-face. There will be no recordings available.

Tutorials:
Tutorials will offer further opportunities to practice what was learned during the workshop. It is expected that students will actively engage with the class and propose solutions to problem sets.

The University expects full-time students (i.e. those taking 12 units per semester) to devote a total of 48 hours per week to their studies.

This translates to 12 hours per week for a semester course.

Teaching & Learning Activities	Related Learning Outcomes
Workshops	1 - 4
Tutorials	1 - 4

LECTURE SCHEDULE

Week	LECTURE SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO MINOR CHANGES Title	Chapters
1	Introduction - Extensive Form - Strategies and The Normal Form Beliefs, Mixed Strategies, and Expected Payoffs - General Assumptions & Methodology	Chapters 1-3 Chapters 4-5
2	Dominance and Best response - Rationalizability & Iterated Dominance Nash Equilibrium	Chapters 6-7 Chapters 9-10
3	Mixed-Strategy Nash Equilibrium – Strictly Competitive Games & Security Strategies	Chapters 11-12
4	Details of the Extensive Form - Backward Induction and Subgame Perfection	Chapters 14-15
5	Games with Continuous Strategies
6	Bayesian Nash Equilibrium, Rationalizability	Chapters 26-27
7	Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium - Job Market Signaling & Reputation	Chapters 28-29
8	MidTerm Test (during workshop time)
	Mid Semester Break
9	Repeated Games, Reputation, Random Events and Incomplete Information	Chapters 22-24
10	Bargaining Problems - Analysis of Simple Bargaining Games	Chapters 18-19
11	TBA - Depending on students' preferences
12	Review for Final Exam

Assessment Task	Due Date/ Week	Weight	Length(Word,Time)	Learning Outcomes
Mid-term Test	Week 8	20%	During workshop time, same location	1 - 4
Tutorial Participation	Weekly	10%	N/A	1 - 4
Assignment (some may involve group work)	Weekly	30%	TBA	1 - 4
Final Examination	Exam period	40%	3 hours	1 - 4
Total		100%

To gain a pass, a mark of at least 45% must be obtained on the final examination as well as a total of at least 50% overall.

Important Notes on Assessments:

1 - Failure to sit the midterm examination will result in receiving zero points. The grade of the final examination will then account for 60% of the overall grade. If a medical certificate is provided, the final examination will also count for 60% of the overall grade.

2 - Assigments MUST be submitted online through MyUni. No other type of submission will be accepted. Extension requests of more than 24 hours will not be accommodated and alternative arrangements will be awarded on a case-by case basis in exceptional circumtances only. To account for possible difficulties during the semester, only the best 9 out of 11 assignments will count towards the final grade.

3 - The ‘tutorial participation’ component of the assessment will be partly based on your attempt to answer questions and exercises during the tutorial. You will be allocated one of three possible grades, 1, 3 or 5, based on the quality of your answers. Obviously, your grade is correlated with your attendance as it is not possible to actively participate if you are not present. Please see your lecturer if you have any concerns.

4 - If you are unable to attend workshops or submit your assignments online for some medical reasons, you have to provide a medical certificate. If the medical certificate covers a period longer than a week, you will need to organise some other arrangements with the lecturer. The same applies if you provide more than two medical certificates during the semester.

5 - Legible hand-writing and the quality of English expression are considered to be integral parts of the assessment process and may affect marks.

6 - Assessment marks prior to the final exam will be displayed on the course website. Students are encouraged to check their marks and notify the lecturer of any discrepancies.

Mid semester test  (Week 8) - 20%

Date and time: During workshop time, same location 

This test will assess the topics of Weeks 1 to 7.

It will consist of mathematical problems and short answer questions. Past mid semester test papers will be available on MyUni, for which no answers will be provided. You are however encouraged to talk about the past exams and their solutions between you or with the lecturer during office hours.

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Tutorial Participation - 10%

Weekly

You will be asked to prepare some exercises before going to your tutorial Please be aware that this preparation is important as it will improve your learning and will contribute towards a dynamic environment where students will interact more actively with one another. Tutorial participation will be graded as described in the following “Assessment Details” section.

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Assignments - 30%

Weekly 

Assignments are to be submitted on time. Some assignments may be group assignments.

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Final Exam - 40%

There will be a 3 hour exam. The final exam is comprehensive, i.e. it can cover ALL the topics

1 - Submission of assignments MUST be online through MyUni. Failure to submit an assignment on time will lead to a zero mark.

2 - Extensions and alternative assessment conditions: It is your responsibility to contact the lecturer in the first 2 weeks of the semester to discuss extension or alternative assessment options. This applies to ALL students, included but not limited to those registered with the disability centre or the elite athletes program. Exceptional circumstances will be evaluated by your lecturer on a case-by-case basis and should be discussed whenever possible at least 48 hours before the due date.

Additional Assessment

If a student receives 45-49 for their final mark for the course they will automatically be granted an additional assessment. This will most likely be in the form of a new exam (Additional Assessment) and will have the same weight as the original exam unless an alternative requirement (for example a hurdle requirement) is stated in this semester’s Course Outline. If, after replacing the original exam mark with the new exam mark, it is calculated that the student has passed the course, they will receive 50 Pass as their final result for the course (no higher) but if the calculation totals less than 50, their grade will be Fail and the higher of the original mark or the mark following the Additional Assessment will be recorded as the final result.