Game Sutra

Rohit Prasad is a Professor of Economics at MDI, Gurgaon. He has a PhD in economic theory from SUNY Stony Brook, USA. He is the author of Start-up Sutra, a popular book on entrepreneurship, and Blood Red River, which examines the contours of development conflict in India. He is also the co-author of The Dynamics of Spectrum Management, a monograph on the economics of the allocation of radio frequencies. This book marks a milestone in his journey of escape from the technical training of his graduate school years.

‘Rohit Prasad’s wonderful book Game Sutra: Rescuing Game Theory from the Game Theorists is a collection of dozens of real-life applications of game theory. Written in English—that is, without mathematics—it is highly accessible to the educated general public. Entertaining, informative and fresh, it is strongly recommended to anyone who is interested in discovering how human interaction works.’

• PrefaceAcknowledgementsGame Theory DeconstructedCommon Knowledge and Counter-StrikesHow Rational Are You?Does Donald Trump Deserve the Nobel Peace Prize?Is Game Theory a Value-neutral Science?The Centre of Gravity: The Nash EquilibriumReturning to Rationality: The Prisoners’ DilemmaThe Vulnerability of the Chinese CorridorSearching for an Equilibrium in the India–China GameWar and Peace in the Heartlands of MaoismIs It Silly Season in Indian Telecom?Designing Legal Liability Rules to Fix Delhi’s Winter WoesGames Businesses PlayThe Airtel–Jio Battle and the Limitations of Game TheoryBattles of the BitcoinThe Collective Action Problem of AssuranceThe Hapless Fate of an Alleged SpyTelecom on the Rocks with a Twist of IUCThe NDA, the UPA and Two Types of ChickenThe Tragedy of the Planet’s Environmental WealthThe Waters of Our DiscontentSequential Games and Rollback EquilibriumReliance Jio’s Second-Mover AdvantageThe 2016 US Elections: The Game of IdeologiesThe Absolutism of DemonetizationRisks Posed by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy CodeEvery Democracy Needs a Little DisloyaltyThe Fine Art of Making ThreatsWill Threats Work Against Pakistan?The RBI and the Flip Flop Finance MinistryLaw and Order in a Time of Lynch MobsHow to Play Hardball and Get Away with ItNorth Korea Is Not Really CubaExaggeration in Brinkmanship is a Double-edged SwordPseudo-brinkmanship and the Sacrament of MarriageThe Twist in the Tale of Bihar’s Political ChameleonHell Hath No Fury Like a Party ScornedNavigating the Fog of WarThe Inscrutable Silence of a Star YogiThe Pure Politics of the Mercurial MayawatiRahul Gandhi and the Beer-‘Dhokla’ GameAre Our Kids Really Smarter Than We Were?Giving Up Control To Achieve UnpredictabilityWhen Being Paranoid Is OKThe Perfect Unpredictability of Roger FedererHow to Buy Cricketers and Coal BlocksWhat the IPL Can Learn From TelecomThe Giddy Tournaments of CapitalismRe-designing the Insolvency Auction to Optimize ValueThe Auction That Runs the InternetAd Auctions: A Market for HorsesThe Gale-Shapley Algorithm and Future Job MarketsCooperative Game Theory and the CoreThe Babylonian Talmud and India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy CodeThe Shapley Value and Legislative PowerJudicial Primacy Is Not the Same as ExclusivityTrump’s Paris Agreement Pull-out: Masterstroke or Farce?The Chaotic Consensus on Goods and Services TaxThe Third Front in the 2019 ElectionThe Game That Worked in GoaThe Perils of Plurality in IndiaRescuing Game Theory from the Game TheoristsIndex