Econ-1B: Writing Analysis- Games

This week's discussion will focus on a series of YouTube videos. Be sure to watch the videos in order and then communicate about them. The first video is more of an introduction to the 2nd video series, it is titled "Game Theory and Oligopoly: Crash Course Economics #26." Note: This video is more of a general introduction, your focus should be on the next video, not this "Crash Course" video. URL: https://youtu.be/PCcVODWm-oY

The second video is where I want you to spend your efforts analyzing. I suggest you watch the videos more than once. I also suggest that you focus on the Prisoner's Dilemma and really keep the discussion focused on the economics that you are learning (not on "greed"). This is not a moral or values-based discussion. If you find your discussion is based on morals or values, then you will have missed the economics of the video.

URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UsLlFgj8IGqBp51b3BbBdUmMVqozOdQg/view?usp=sharing

Some Important Additional Key Terms:

• credible threat: a threat to take any action that is in the threatener's interest to carry out
• credible promise: a promise to take any action that is in the promiser's interest to keep
• commitment problem: a situation in which people cannot achieve their goals because of an inability to make credible threats or promises
• commitment device: a way of changing incentives so as to make otherwise empty threats or promises credible

The Main Focus of Your Discussion:Remember that the Prisoner's Dilemma game itself has incentives for bad outcomes... I can design a game that everyone has incentives to cooperate, it doesn't make them "good" people all of a sudden ...