A theme of our class so far has been how institutions help people "do better" in situations in which uncoordinated activity can lead to inefficient outcomes. Many of the concepts I have referred to in our lectures or that you (should) have read about in the text deal with these kinds of situations and how to analyze them---collective action problem, prisoners' dilemma, Nash equilibrium, etc. We have encountered these ideas as part of our effort to understand American national politics. However, the field of "game theory" systematically develops these and other concepts to help understand individuals' strategic interactions with one another more generally.
If you are interested in these ideas, there are, of course, several undergraduate game theory courses offered here at Texas A&M, including classes in the Political Science and Economics departments. However, a pair of professors at Stanford University are offering a free introductory game theory course online starting this coming week. All of the details are here: https://www.coursera.org/gametheory/auth/welcome.
I know. You are all on spring break, and taking on an extra course for fun is probably the last thing on your agenda, which is fair enough. For now, let me just point you to this really great opportunity, though, and invite anyone who is interested in taking the course to come and speak with me about it when we get back in session on Monday.
