Game Theory . Possible additional topics include combinatorial games, stochastic games, coalitional games and the core, marriage problem, and cost allocation. General information Game theory arose as an attempt to formalize and to analyze mathematically real-life competition between two or more players. One of the players might be chance or fate. Though the terminology of sports is used, the competition might be deadly serious.
Game theory is used to model economic competition, military competition, and political competition.
It is applied widely in operations research, organization theory, and the study of bargaining and negotiation. Game theory finds its origins in the work of E. Borel and J. von Neumann from the 1920's. It became well known through the publication in 1944 of the monumental work, Theory of Games and Economic Behavior , by von Neumann and O. Morgenstern. Since that time the field has mushroomed in interest and applicability. One of the foremost contemporary game theorists is L. Shapley, son of an eminent astronomer and himself a member of the National Academy of Sciences.