Classics in Game Theory assembles in one sourcebook the basic
contributions to the field that followed on the publication of Theory of
Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern
(Princeton, 1944). The theory of games, first given a rigorous
formulation by von Neumann in a in 1928, is a subfield of mathematics
and economics that models situations in which individuals compete and
cooperate with each other. In the "heroic era" of research that began in
the late 1940s, the foundations of the current theory were laid; it is
these fundamental contributions that are collected in this volume. In
the last fifteen years, game theory has become the dominant model in
economic theory and has made significant contributions to political
science, biology, and international security studies. The central role
of game theory in economic theory was recognized by the award of the
Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1994 to the pioneering game
theorists John C. Harsanyi, John Nash, and Reinhard Selten. The
fundamental works for which they were honored are all included in this
volume.Harold Kuhn, himself a major contributor to game theory for his
reformulation of extensive games, has chosen eighteen essays that
constitute the core of game theory as it exists today. Drawn from a
variety of sources, they will be an invaluable tool for researchers in
game theory and for a broad group of students of economics, political
science, and biology.
