by Herbert Gintis
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Product Description
The study of strategic action (game theory) is moving from a formal science of rational behavior to an evolutionary tool kit for studying behavior in a broad array of social settings. In this problem-oriented introduction to the field, Herbert Gintis exposes students to the techniques and applications of game theory through a wealth of sophisticated and surprisingly fun-to-solve problems involving human (and even animal) behavior. Game Theory Evolving is innovative in several ways. First, it reflects game theory's expansion into such areas as cooperation in teams, networks, the evolution and diffusion of preferences, the connection between biology and economics, artificial life simulations, and experimental economics. Second, the book--recognizing that students learn by doing and that most game theory texts are weak on problems--is organized around problems, and introduces principles through practice. Finally, the quality of the problems is simply unsurpassed, and each chapter provides a study plan for instructors interested in teaching evolutionary game theory. Reflecting the growing consensus that in many important contexts outside of anonymous markets, human behavior is not well described by classical "rationality," Gintis shows students how to apply game theory to model how people behave in ways that reflect the special nature of human sociality and individuality. This book is perfect for upper undergraduate and graduate economics courses as well as a terrific introduction for ambitious do-it-yourselfers throughout the behavioral sciences.
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Average Customer Review:
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Lecture notes, 2008-01-28
I am using this book for independent study of Game Theory.
The pros. The problems in the book are excellent. They range from easy to fairly difficult, and manage to cover most nooks and crannies needed for a thorough introduction to contemporary game theory, with some evolutionary and economics background for good measure. For professors, I think this is a good book to use to prepare a class. It has the examples one needs to set up a "zone of proximal development", meaning, an exposition in which one leads the students bit by bit toward better mastery of the ideas. In fact, the choice of problems, the flow from one vignette to another, and the interweaving of problems with important theoretical concepts and expositions leave the impression that the book is closely based on Prof. Gintis's lecture notes.
The cons. The blessing is also the curse: the book reads like a chalkboard with commentary rather than like a textbook. If you are expecting the familiar cadence of background - theory - examples - problems, you will not find it here. This can be refreshing, but takes getting used to. A more serious drawback is that solutions at the end of the book are very sketchy, so beginners will find it difficult to connect all the dots without outside help. Students expecting a more thorough style are likely to find the book infuriating.
In brief, the quality of material is high, but the treatment could have used a once- or a twice-over. Solid reference, very good for preparing a class, but if you are using it for home study, have someone to call on when you get stuck on a problem. Also, if you are a mathematically competent social scientist, I would recommend another book in parallel, such as Hargreaves-Heap & Varoufakis "Game Theory - A Critical Text". While Gintis is very hands-on, Hargreaves-Heap and Varoufakis spend much more time on warranted and unwarranted assumptions game theory makes about human psychology, as well as epistemological concerns - details needed to understand how the theory fits within social sciences. These two books complement each other quite well.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Book on Game Theory Evolving by H. Gintis, 2007-03-16
I recently purchased this book through Amazon.com. The book is excellent. The treatment of the topic is in depth and the examples are very profound. The exercises also are very though provoking and it is a great book for anyone who wants to learn more about Game Theory.
The service by amazon was also outstanding. I obtained the book on the promised date. All queries regarding the order were answered promptly and professionally.
9 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
 Lots of errors, this book stinks, 2006-02-06
I bought the 2000 edition of this book, which has so many errors that it's unreadable, and some of the problems are unsolvable because of the errors. I found enough errors in the second chapter alone to make me give up on it. The author has a link to a file of errata on his web page, but the link was dead. I contacted the author to ask for the errata, and he told me to buy the 2002 edition. I insisted, and he e-mailed me the file. I didn't find either of two major errors that I had noticed in the errata. The book has very few examples, so it took me a long time to realize that my trouble with the problems as presented was because of errors with the problems, not because the problems were particularly hard. Don't buy this book, period.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
All-around weak, but has a lot of problems and a website, 2005-12-24
Oy, so, as a collection of *a lot* of problems, it's great; and that makes it pretty great. By any other standard, and for any other use than reference (to problems, not ideas), it's junk, however, hardly approaching the normal standards of Princeton's UP, I've gotta think.
There are numerous errors in the problems (I haven't seen any in the answers yet and the monkey problem other reviewers criticize is correct). I happened to skip to Markov chains, for example, and not only was there a pair of typographical errors (some mis-TEXing; not the author's fault, I suppose), but also a mistake in the first example after the description.
The good news is he's fixed the mistakes and gone and written a whole new chapter on "markov economies" and posted it all online. Better news would be a new, more carefully edited, edition, or at least a separate file online of corrections, so one doesn't have to search your (yeah, he seems be active on Amazon) new-made chapters, with their unfortunate numbering conventions (putting two-sentence problems on the same stratum as solution concepts results in some inconvenience & incoherence).
Beyond these editing errors, the book seems to be heavy on text and short on rigor (at least outside of big blocks of text, that is), and citations (he doesn't like other game theorists!). The organization is also poor, even within chapters; as mentioned above a new chapter was inserted since publication.
So, in summary,
Pros: includes originality (he hates theorists of game theory proper!) for the uninitiated, and lots of examples and a website with corrections and updates
Cons: useless for reading, learning or teaching from, etc.
Okay, so no, he doesn't hate game theorists; he just tries hard to evolve his way out of the ambiguities of "classical" game theory. Needless to say, evolution is hard to do on one's own.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Great Problem Book, 2005-09-21
There are a number of high quality problems in this book. It falls somewhat short on explanations, and I wouldn't suggest it for someone trying to learn game theory on their own.
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