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Complexity Theory, Game Theory, and Economics: The Barbados Lectures

Computational Complexity 2020-02-11 v3 Computer Science and Game Theory Econometrics

Abstract

This document collects the lecture notes from my mini-course "Complexity Theory, Game Theory, and Economics," taught at the Bellairs Research Institute of McGill University, Holetown, Barbados, February 19--23, 2017, as the 29th McGill Invitational Workshop on Computational Complexity. The goal of this mini-course is twofold: (i) to explain how complexity theory has helped illuminate several barriers in economics and game theory; and (ii) to illustrate how game-theoretic questions have led to new and interesting complexity theory, including recent several breakthroughs. It consists of two five-lecture sequences: the Solar Lectures, focusing on the communication and computational complexity of computing equilibria; and the Lunar Lectures, focusing on applications of complexity theory in game theory and economics. No background in game theory is assumed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1801.00734,
  title  = {Complexity Theory, Game Theory, and Economics: The Barbados Lectures},
  author = {Tim Roughgarden},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1801.00734},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Revised v2 from December 2019 corrects some errors in and adds some recent citations to v1 Revised v3 corrects a few typos in v2