Chance, Strategy, and Choice

Games and elections are fundamental activities in society

with applications in economics, political science, and sociology. These topics offer familiar, current, and lively subjects for a course in mathematics. This classroom-tested textbook, primarily intended for a general education course in game theory at the freshman or sophomore level, provides an elementary treatment of games and elections. Starting with basics such as gambling, zero-sum and combinatorial games, Nash equilibria, social dilemmas, and fairness and impossibility theorems for elections, the text then goes further into the theory with accessible proofs of advanced topics such as the Sprague–Grundy theorem and Arrow's impossibility theorem.

Features of the textbook

Uses an integrative approach to probability, game, and social choice theory

Provides a gentle introduction to the logic of mathematical proof, thus equipping readers with the necessary tools for further mathematical studies

Contains numerous exercises and examples of varying levels of difficulty

Requires only a high school mathematical background