InfoCoBuild

ECON 159: Game Theory

Lecture 14 - Backward Induction: Commitment, Spies, and First-Mover Advantages. We first apply our big idea - backward induction - to analyze quantity competition between firms when play is sequential, the Stackelberg model. We do this twice: first using intuition and then using calculus. We learn that this game has a first-mover advantage, and that it comes commitment and from information in the game rather than the timing per se. We notice that in some games having more information can hurt you if other players know you will have that information and hence alter their behavior. Finally, we show that, contrary to myth, many games do not have first-mover advantages. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 14 - Backward Induction: Commitment, Spies, and First-Mover Advantages

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Sequential Games: First Mover Advantage in the Stackelberg Model
[00:38:13] 2. First Mover Advantage: Commitment Strategy
[00:49:25] 3. First Mover Advantage: Why It Is Not Always an Advantage
[00:55:53] 4. First and Second Mover Advantage: NIM

References
Lecture 14 - Backward Induction: Commitment, Spies, and First-Mover Advantages
Instructor: Professor Ben Polak. Resources: Problem Set 6 [PDF]; Blackboard Notes Lecture 14 [PDF]. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction: Five First Lessons
Lecture 02 - Putting Yourselves into Other People's Shoes
Lecture 03 - Iterative Deletion and the Median-Voter Theorem
Lecture 04 - Best Responses in Soccer and Business Partnerships
Lecture 05 - Nash Equilibrium: Bad Fashion and Bank Runs
Lecture 06 - Nash Equilibrium: Dating and Cournot
Lecture 07 - Nash Equilibrium: Shopping, Standing and Voting on a Line
Lecture 08 - Nash Equilibrium: Location, Segregation and Randomization
Lecture 09 - Mixed Strategies in Theory and Tennis
Lecture 10 - Mixed Strategies in Baseball, Dating and Paying Your Taxes
Lecture 11 - Evolutionary Stability: Cooperation, Mutation, and Equilibrium
Lecture 12 - Evolutionary Stability: Social Convention, Aggression, and Cycles
Lecture 13 - Sequential Games: Moral Hazard, Incentives, and Hungry Lions
Lecture 14 - Backward Induction: Commitment, Spies, and First-Mover Advantages
Lecture 15 - Backward Induction: Chess, Strategies, and Credible Threats
Lecture 16 - Backward Induction: Reputation and Duels
Lecture 17 - Backward Induction: Ultimatums and Bargaining
Lecture 18 - Imperfect Information: Information Sets and Sub-Game Perfection
Lecture 19 - Subgame Perfect Equilibrium: Matchmaking and Strategic Investments
Lecture 20 - Subgame Perfect Equilibrium: Wars of Attrition
Lecture 21 - Repeated Games: Cooperation vs. the End Game
Lecture 22 - Repeated Games: Cheating, Punishment, and Outsourcing
Lecture 23 - Asymmetric Information: Silence, Signaling and Suffering Education
Lecture 24 - Asymmetric Information: Auctions and the Winner's Course