David Levine's Economic and Game Theory Page

Selten's Game

"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist." John Maynard Keynes

Unlimited perpetual
permission to link
to any page on this
website is granted. All
non-password-protected
original material
except software
and classroom material
is released under a
Creative Commons
Attribution License meaning you use it
as you like provided
you give me credit.
Software is generally released to
the public domain.
Classroom material is
released under a more
restrictive license
that requires you share
alike.

This site uses the tools of modern economics and game theory to explore how the interaction of intelligent goal-seeking individuals determines social outcomes. Find out more about game theory.

Who cares about patent waivers for vaccines?: Roughly speaking the answer should be "nobody." A short article by Michele Boldrin, Flavio Toxvaerd and myself. [Posted at 05/15/2021 04:41 AM by David K. Levine ]

Are vaccination pauses a good idea?:

Peter Hansen and I think not: we have written an essay explaining why not If you agree please share it. [Posted at 04/22/2021 05:08 AM by David K. Levine ]

Forecasting elections: It is all about voter turnout. Here is what 538 does not understand. [Posted at 11/02/2020 05:37 AM by David K. Levine ]

Monopoly: The modern field of industrial organization seems to have spent decades chasing itself into smaller and smaller circles while the real and serious problems of monopoly go ignored. James A. Schmitz, Jr. is trying to remedy this with his monumental indictment of modern monopoly: read his book Monopolies Inflict Great Harm on Low- and Middle-Income Americans Or get a taste of it with his shorter articles on his website. [Posted at 05/23/2020 02:17 AM by David K. Levine ]

Global Warming: What Sort of Mess Have We Made: An essay detailing my conclusions from reading the economic literature on climate change. [Posted at 12/03/2019 04:33 AM by David K. Levine ]

An interview on intellectual property: With James Corbett of the corbettreport [Posted at 07/17/2019 07:34 AM by David K. Levine ]

Intervention:

and peace? [Posted at 10/18/2018 02:29 AM by David K. Levine ]

Perilous Populism: We have a new website about the perils of populism discussing our research on democracy, corruption, lobbying and the behavior of political groups and how it may help. [Posted at 04/18/2017 05:13 AM by David K. Levine ]

Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?:

Now available everywhere From Openbook Publishers - a new open access book about traditional and behavioral economics. [Posted at 06/20/2012 08:05 AM by David K. Levine ]

Latest papers (more papers, more research, more news)

"Reforming Patent Law: The Case of Covid‐19" [10/20/21] (with M. Boldrin)
"A Tale of Two Subsidies: Why the Afghan Army did not Fight" [09/20/21] (with R. Dutta and S. Modica)
"Labor Associations: The Blue Wall of Silence" [09/03/21] (with A. Mattozzi and S. Modica)
"The Reputation Trap" [04/24/21]
"Success in Contests" [04/22/21] (with A. Mattozzi)

Questions about economic or game theory? Try our forum.

General interest material about game theory, including an introductory essay, a reading list, and a forum for questions and answers. You can also find information about the work of Armen A. Alchian, Jack Hirshleifer and other general interest material.