Game Practice: Contributions from Applied Game Theory

This collection of papers is an outgrowth of the `Game Practice I' conference. The overall content of this book is firmly rooted in existing game theory. Much experimental and observational evidence demonstrates that there is a large gap between theory and `practice'. There is no doubt that theory is nonetheless needed, and that it has to be developed. At the same time there is a risk of sterile developments if theory is not fed by challenges coming from confronting the real world. In this respect, the editors' feelings are that there is now a need for a better balance between theory and applications. The kind of considerations sketched above gave birth to the idea of organizing a series of meetings to stimulate research in game theory which seeks a more direct connection with real world problems. Most of the contributions can be roughly classified into four groups: political applications, problems of cost/reward sharing, economic applications, and experiments. The collection is relevant to academics working in game theory and related topics such as management, decision theory and industrial organization