Econ/CIS 166B Bio 176B Winter 2017
UCSC Dan Friedman & Barry Sinervo
Evolutionary Game Theory
The class is a second course in modern game theory with applications in the social sciences as well as in biology and computer science. The focus is evolutionary games and spatial games, and simulation techniques. Undergraduate students are expected to have completed the first course, Econ/Cmps166A /Bio 176A, or have an equivalent background.The class is held in conjunction with the graduate course Econ/Cmps 272.
Students will be evaluated on biweekly homework assignments and participation (25%), a midterm exam (25%) and the team project (50%). Each student will join a 3-5 person team that includes students from different majors. Graduate students are expected to play a leading role. Each team will engage in original research that applies game theory to a question of interest, and will present the results orally and in a term paper.
The primary text is Evolutionary Games in Natural, Social and Virtual Worldsby Friedman and Sinervo [denoted FS below], Oxford University Press, 2016. Supplementary texts includePopulation Games and Evolutionary Dynamicsby William Sandholm (MIT Press, 2010),Evolutionary Dynamics by Martin Nowak (Harvard University Press, 2006) and an undergraduate game theory text such as Games, Strategies and Decision Making by Joseph Harrington (Worth Publishers, 2009) or Strategy by Joel Watson (Norton, 2008). The supplementary texts will be on 2-hour reserve at the Science Library. Other materials will appear on the class website.
If you qualify for classroom accommodations because of a disability, please get an Accommodation Authorization from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) and submit it in person outside of class (e.g., during office hours) to one of the instructors within the first two weeks of the quarter. Contact DRC at 459-2089 (voice), 459-4806 (TTY), or for more information.
The class meets Tu Th 3:20 - 4:55pm in 161 Soc Sci 1.
Office hours are W 2-4pm in 417 Engineering 2 for Dan, and
Tu Th 1-2pm in A409 Earth & Marine Sciences for Barry.
Tentative Schedule
Lectures by DF=Dan Friedman, BS=Barry Sinervo, GL=guest lecture; * denotes homework due dates, ! indicates term project updates due.
1. Jan 10[DF]: General introduction.Fitness, replicator equation, memes and genes.
Jan 12[BS]: Strategic interaction=frequency dependence, interior steady states, HD and Stag Hunt.
Readings: FS, Ch 1-2.3. Software: continuous dynamic simulations with R
2. Jan 17*[DF]: Nonlinear payoff functions. Edge games, and games on the simplex.
Jan 19[BS]: RPS and sectoring the simplex. Estimating the payoff matrix.
Readings: FS, Ch 2.4 – 3.2. Software: discrete replicator with Excel
3. Jan 24*![BS]:Classification of 3-strategy games.Two-population games. Own-pop effects.
Jan 26[DF]: More populations and more strategies. BR and monotone dynamics.
Readings: FS, Ch 3.3 - 3.8. Harrington, Ch 1-3. Bomze. Software: Mathematica/Dynamo
4. Jan 31*[DF]: Equilibrium -- Nash and ESS. Stability: Jacobians, Lyapunov fns, Liouville’s thm.
Feb 2[BS]: Fisherian runaway dynamics. Life cycle games.
Readings: FS, Ch 4. Harrington, Ch 4-7. Website supplements: TBA.
5. Feb 7*![BS]: Price equation. Assortative matching.
Feb 9[DF]: Cellular Automata. Review.
Readings: FS, Ch 5-6. Website supplements: TBA.
6. Feb 14: Midterm exam in class.
Feb 16 [BS]:RPS everywhere, mimicry.
Readings: FS, Ch 7.
7. Feb 21[DF]: Learning in Games
Feb 23![BS]: Plastic and life-cycle strategies
Readings: FS, Ch 8,9.
8. Feb 28[DF]: International trade and the environment
Mar 1!![ J. Musacchio]: Traffic Games. Good draft of term project due in class today.
Readings: FS, Ch 12,11.
9. Mar 7[DF]: Speciation
Mar 9[DF]: Evolution of Cooperation
Readings: FS, Ch 14,13.
10. Mar 14, 16. Project presentations.
The final written version of the term project is due noon Tuesday, March 21.