Rational Behaviour and Bargaining Equilibrium in Games and Social Situations

This is a paperback edition of a major contribution to the field, first published in hard covers in 1977.

John C. Harsanyi (Author)

9780521311830, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 June 1986

328 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

This is a paperback edition of a major contribution to the field, first published in hard covers in 1977. The book outlines a general theory of rational behaviour consisting of individual decision theory, ethics, and game theory as its main branches. Decision theory deals with a rational pursuit of individual utility; ethics with a rational pursuit of the common interests of society; and game theory with an interaction of two or more rational individuals, each pursuing his own interests in a rational manner.

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. Bargaining-equilibrium analysis: a new approach to game theory and to the analysis of social behavior
2. Rational-choice models of social behavior
3. Rational behavior under certainty, risk, and uncertainty
4. Morality and social welfare A constructive approach
Part II. General principles: 5. Some basic concepts of game theory
6. Rationality postulates for game situations
7. The four basic problems facing the players of a game
Part III. Solutions for specific classes of games: 8. Two-person simple bargaining games: the Nash solution
9. General two-person cooperative games
10. n-Person simple bargaining games
11. n-Person cooperative games with transferable utility: the modified Shapley value
12. n-person cooperative games: the general case
13. n-Person cooperative games: discriminatory solutions
14. Noncooperative and almost-noncooperative games.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]