In this episode, Jason Thompson explains how Game Theory can help understand interactions on the roads and in traffic. We discuss agent-based-modelling and its application to analysing the behaviour of road users in traffic intersection. Jason gives examples on ‘different games’ at traffic intersections and compares the game induced by traffic regulations with the one originating from varying powers of the road users (e.g. truck vs cyclist).

We also discuss how such interactions will change with the introduction and increase of autonomously driving vehicles.

Jason Thompson is associate professor at University of Melbourne School of Design and School of Medicine. His interest, among other, is focused on the translation of research into practice across the areas of transportation, heavy-vehicle safety, and health system design.

In this episode, Martin Schmalz explains what machine learning has to do with economics and game theory and its relationship to common ownership. He gives some practical examples for game theoretic situations in which machine learning is already used, and shows where potential benefits and risk for consumers might lie.

In addition, we discuss the topic of common ownership – another one of Martins’ fields of research, i.e. situations in which individuals or groups simultaneously hold shares of competing companies in a market sector. According to Martin, this phenomenon occurs much more often than you might think. He explains its effect on competition and we discuss its potential for collusive market behaviour.

Martin Schmalz is professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School and co-author of the book ‘The Business of Big Data’.

His research interests, among others, are in the areas of financial economics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Playing nice – Trust and reputation in Game Theory, eCommerce and vaccinations | with Steve Tadelis

In this episode we talk to Steve Tadelis about reputation and trust. He explains how he first got into the topic, what reputation means in the context of Game Theory and how even leaving no review at all could signal reputation on platforms like ebay. He also shows how powerful reputation and trust can be beyond the business context, e.g. when increasing vaccination rates with the help of Donald Trump.

Steve Tadelis is professor of economics, business and public policy at UC Berkeley. His research interests include the economics of eCommerce and incentives & organisations. On top of his academic experience he has worked as senior economist at Amazon and eBay.

In the episode, Steve mentions the following papers:

• Rational cooperation in the finitely repeated prisoners’ dilemma, by David Kreps, Paul Milgrom, John Roberts and Robert Wilson
• Using Donald Trump’s COVID-19 Vaccine Endorsement to Give Public Health a Shot in the Arm: A Large-Scale Ad Experiment, by Bradley Larsen, Marc J. Hetherington, Steven H. Greene, Timothy J. Ryan, Rahsaan D. Maxwell & Steven Tadelis

In this episode, we discuss with Nick Arnosti the economic aspects of lotteries. Nick explains in which sense lotteries are a relevant economic mechanism, and gives some examples of where and why they are used. We focus in particular on the use of lotteries in the allocation of affordable housing in New York.

Nick Arnosti is assistant professor at the University of Minnesota. His research is focussed on systems for allocating public resources.

During the interview, Nick mentions a paper which compares lotteries and waiting lists; this paper can be found here.

In this episode we are talking to Economics Professor Eyal Winter, who works as both an academic researcher and as a consultant who supports his clients in various auction settings. We discuss how consulting differs from theoretical research, and how to best behave in an auction setting. Eyal also shows how emotions can sometimes strongly influence people’s behaviour in auctions.

Eyal Winter is the Silverzweig professor of economics at the Hebrew University and the Andrews & Brunner professor at Lancaster University. His research interests are broadly spread, ranging from Behavioural Economics to Decision Making, Game Theory and Finance. He is also the author of the book “Feeling Smart – Why Our Emotions Are More Rational Than We Think”, in which he explores the use and logic in emotions.

During the interview, Eyal mentions a spectrum auction in New Zealand, which yielded a very disappointing outcome for the New Zealand government. More information on this auction can be found e.g. here and here.