Sunday, April 20, 2014

Distilling the Wisdom of C.E.O.’s

As we near the end of our semester together, time to start thinking about the future. Check out this article from the NY Times, it identifies some of the characteristics shared by CEOs of corporations. Of those traits listed which one do you think is the most important? List a few characteristics that you think should be added to the list. Of those listed, which characteristics do you feel that you possess, and which ones would you need to work on?

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Game Theory

We don't spend much time on Game Theory in class, however the definition is:
"Game theory studies interactive decision-making, where the outcome for each participant or "player" depends on the actions of all. If you are a player in such a game, when choosing your course of action or "strategy" you must take into account the choices of others. But in thinking about their choices, you must recognize that they are thinking about yours, and in turn trying to take into account your thinking about their thinking, and so on."

You may have heard of Nash Equilibrium (A Beautiful Mind) where the two players establish the actions that will be in both of their best interests. This is usually explained using the Prisoners Dilemma (see below)


Say Ben and Alice have both been arrested for the same crime and are being held in separate cells. They are questioned by the police and have the following options; confess or stay silent. What should each do?
If both confess they each get 1 year in prison, if both stay silent they get 3 years apiece. If one confesses and the other stays silent, the confessor gets 5 years and the other one goes free. Game theory explains what strategy each player should select to minimize their time in jail.

Click on the link below, watch the video from the British game show "Golden Balls" and answer the 3 questions in your response.
http://welkerswikinomics.com/blog/2012/04/20/golden-balls-game-theory-the-prisoners-dilemma-and-the-cold-rationality-of-human-behavior/

Sunday, April 06, 2014

The Fed Chairman Game


Check out this game created by the Federal Reserve. It deals with exactly what we are studying right now, monetary policy. The game puts you in the position of the Fed Chairman, and you must manipulate interest rates in order to balance unemployment and inflation. Click on the learn more button before playing. Investigate the Fed Toolkit and the other items in the help section. After this play the game. Give me a short summary of your strategy and how it went.