We discuss with TWS Partners’ CEO Marcus Schreiber which economic reasons led to the impressively short development time for a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Marcus describes that risk mitigation and clever incentive structures set by the governments significantly contributed to this success story. This can be seen as a prime example for market design, a subfield of game theory. For our German listeners: You can read more on this topic in Marc’s column in the Handelsblatt (https://www.handelsblatt.com/meinung/kolumnen/expertenrat/schreiber/expertenrat-marcus-schreiber-gut-dass-staaten-die-impfstoffentwicklung-nicht-allein-dem-markt-ueberlassen/26663870.html)

We discuss with Professor of Economics Abhinay Muthoo, University of Warwick, a fundamental model of game theory: the Prisoners Dilemma. We not only explore its theoretical background but even more how it can demonstrate and explain rather complex behaviours in business and everyday life.

We discuss with TWS Partners’ Managing Partner Sebastian Moritz how applying knowledge from game theory has helped to eliminate a severe disease. An important part in this discussion will be to understand that setting the focus on prices of drugs alone may not always result in a functioning market, let a alone the desired outcome.

With our guest Prof. Achim Wambach, PhD, president of the ZEW, we discuss what this year's Economics Nobel Prize laureates Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson have contributed to game theory and auction theory. Here, we look at both: rather theoretical concepts but also their direct applications.

We discuss with the CEO and co-founder of TWS Partners, Marcus Schreiber, how game theory as a pure academic subject can also be applied in the business context. We also talk about the journey of how he founded TWS Partners as a consultancy specialised in game theory.