Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- 1 Preferences, Comparative Evaluations, and Reasons
- Part I Preferences in Positive Economics
- 2 Preference Axioms and Their Implications
- 3 Revealed-Preference Theory
- 4 Preferences, Decision Theory, and Consequentialism
- 5 Game Theory and Consequentialism
- 6 Constraints and Counterpreferential Choice
- Part II Preferences, Welfare, and Normative Economics
- Part III Psychology, Rational Evaluation, and Preference Formation
- References
- Index
5 - Game Theory and Consequentialism
from Part I - Preferences in Positive Economics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Figures
- Preface
- 1 Preferences, Comparative Evaluations, and Reasons
- Part I Preferences in Positive Economics
- 2 Preference Axioms and Their Implications
- 3 Revealed-Preference Theory
- 4 Preferences, Decision Theory, and Consequentialism
- 5 Game Theory and Consequentialism
- 6 Constraints and Counterpreferential Choice
- Part II Preferences, Welfare, and Normative Economics
- Part III Psychology, Rational Evaluation, and Preference Formation
- References
- Index
Summary
Game theory, like expected-utility theory, predicts and explains behavior in terms of preferences and beliefs and the constraints that determine which choices are feasible. What distinguishes it from expected-utility theory is its focus on strategic interactions – circumstances in which outcomes depend on the choices of others as well as on one’s own choices. In explaining and predicting choices among strategies, game theory is unavoidably a theory of the formation of preferences among strategies. Although game theorists do not talk about preferences among strategies, there are no grounds to deny that they exist and that game theory shows what they depend on.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Preference, Value, Choice, and Welfare , pp. 49 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011