In this episode Piotr Dworczak explains to us how Market Design can contribute to alleviating inequality by increasing accuracy of policies targeting inequality. He does so using an example from the housing market which shows that more often than not it is very difficult to ensure that subsidies actually reach people in need since they cannot be easily identified. This is where Market Design comes into play: by generating targeted incentives which have a selection effect, it makes e.g. affordable housing policies more effective.

Piotr Dworczak is associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Northwestern University and Researcher at the Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE) in Warsaw, Poland. He does research on Mechanism and Information Design, specifically with more applied interests in inequality-aware Market Design.

In this episode Emir Kamenica introduces us to the research field of information design. He recaps the history of modelling information in economics from the 70s to today, and explains term “Bayesian Persuasion” (and if and how it differs from the term “information design”). He then illustrates how having full information e.g. as a navigation app user can lead to inefficient outcomes and what information design means in the context of mystery novels, gambling and entertainment in general.

Emir Kamenica is Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and, together with his co-researchers, has founded the field of Bayesian persuasion. Beyond that his research is centered on different topics in microeconomics.

During the interview, Emir mentions one of his papers on how information design can reduce congestion. You can find this paper here.

In this episode, Vitali Gretschko sheds some light on a fundamental game theoretic concept: Commitment. He explains why commitment is a crucial prerequisite of auctions and introduces different ways of generating commitment.

We also explore how commitment is linked to the concept of information and discuss auction concepts which make it less likely for the auctioneer to break their commitment afterwards.

Vitali Gretschko is Professor of Market Design at the University of Mannheim and head of the ZEW Research Department “Market Design”.

In the interview, Vitali mentions papers explaining how to use cryptography to create commitment in mechanism designs. You can find them here and here.

From selling on eBay over Google advertisements to buying a house, auctions are all around us! But what makes it so difficult to find the right bidding strategy? In this episode Bernhard Kasberger sheds some light on what a so called first price auction is, why it is challenging to “bid correctly” and what the recipe for the optimal bid strategy under maximum uncertainty is in theory. He explains how his findings apply to the real life and which additional related topics he is currently working on.

Bernhard Kasberger currently works as a Postdoc at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. His research is focused on auctions, market design, industrial organization and game theory.

The research Bernhard presents in the interview is detailed in this paper.

A dangerous game: On Geoengineering and moral hazard | with Gernot Wagner

In this episode Gernot Wagner explains the concept of Geoengineering and its potential role in preventing climate change. He analyses the implications of Geoengineering from a game theoretic perspective and shows the connection to the game theoretic concept of “moral hazard”.

He also gives some advice on how we can all profit from the (potential) advantages of Geoengineering (and other new technologies), without falling into the “moral hazard trap”.

Gernot Wagner is climate economist at Columbia Business School where his research is focused on climate risks and climate policy. He is also the author of many books about climate change and what to do against it, with “Geoengineering: the Gamble” being his latest one.

To share or not to share. Credit, incentives and competition among researchers | with Remco Heesen

In this episode Remco Heesen shares his insights on the trade-offs researchers face when deciding whether to share intermediate results with fellow researchers. He explains how incentive structures in research lead to a suboptimal outcome and gives historic examples of prominent researchers who have been subject to these incentives. Remco then discusses possible measures that can be taken to encourage researchers to share intermediate results with their colleagues.

Remco Heesen currently works as a researcher and senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia and the University of Groningen. Starting September this year he will take on a position as Assistant Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method. His research is focused on the philosophy of science, and social and formal epistemology.

In the interview, Remco mentions his PhD supervisor Kevin Zollman, who also was a guest on our show. You can listen to his episode on evolutionary game theory here.

In this episode, we discuss with Paul Papayoanou his real life experience as a consultant applying Game Theory. Paul has worked on over 150 engagements using his expertise. In our discussion we especially focus on Paul’s experience in consulting bidders participating in auctions. Paul shares how he prepares his clients when they enter an auction and what makes a good bidding strategy.

Paul Papayoanou is a consultant for all things Game Theory and author of the book “Game Theory for Business: A Primer in Strategic Gaming“. He has worked as a professor at the University of California San Diego and at Harvard University, and currently is a Senior Advisor with Decision Frameworks, a boutique consultancy based in Houston, Texas that serves clients worldwide.

To celebrate 50 episodes of Game Changer, we take a look behind the scenes. The hosts Simon and Florian take the role of interviewees and answer Miriam’s questions on their motivation and goals for the game changer podcast and how the episodes are prepared and recorded.

We would like to thank all our listeners for sticking with us for 50 episodes and we are looking forward to the next 50 episodes and interesting insights into applications of Game Theory in business and everyday life!

In this episode, we focus on ‘decision theory’ and discuss with Shachar its connection to Game Theory. Shachar shares the three key trade-offs relevant for taking a decision.

We also discuss the ‘dictator game’ and how Shachar applied a modified version of the dictator game to study preferences of decision makers in real life.

Shachar Kariv is Benjamin N. Ward Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His current research interests are focused on economic/decision theory and on social networks, social learning, personal and social preferences.

In this episode we talk to Ben Lyttleton about a particular topic in football: how to score the perfect penalty. Ben is an expert on penalties and has gathered a lot of insights on the ‘perfect penalty’ in his book Twelve Yards: The Art & Psychology of the Perfect Penalty. Ben shares that penalties are much more complex than initial Game Theory models would suggest. For a full understanding of penalties gathering the right data and understanding the psychology of the penalties are both critical elements. During our discussion Ben shares many anecdotes from his work with football clubs and teams.

Ben Lyttleton is a British football journalist and author of news articles and books. Our discussion is based on Ben’s book “Twelve Yards: The Art & Psychology of the Perfect Penalty”.