1.         Introduction and Problem Statement

Game Theory, an analytical tool for studying decision-making under strategic conditions, has revolutionized decision making in recent decades. It has helped analysts to structure a wide range of human interactions in which the outcomes depend on interactive actions of two or more individuals or agents and in the process radically transformed and enhanced our understanding and capacity to analyze strategic interactions among individuals and groups of individuals and business enterprises under market and non-market institutions. Insights from game theory have helped to throw fresh light on the modelling and interpretations of social behaviour involving collective action, governance, trust, coordination, honesty, leadership, heterogeneity which were seemingly intractable some years back. Besides, in many areas of management and public policy, game theory has become an invaluable tool of analysis of policy design and more nuanced prediction of socio-economic problems and outcomes of policies in developing countries such as Nigeria.

However, despite the usefulness of game theory in diagnosing and designing more robust policy solutions to the social and economic problems of relevance to Nigeria, most researchers and policy makers in Nigeria have little or no exposure to this increasingly indispensable tool in the analyst’s toolkit. The multifaceted nature of the factors impacting social and economic behaviour and conditions in the country, strongly suggests that many more researchers and policy makers should be equipped with this powerful analytical tool. Against this background of poor accessibility of most researcher to this analytical tool, and the fact that Game Theory has become an invaluable tool for analyzing and designing robust policy solutions to the economic and social problems of development, the desirability of this workshop is clear.

2.         Workshop Objectives

The main objective of this course is to improve the capacity of researchers and policy makers in Nigeria to formulate and analyze social and economic problems and predict outcomes of strategic decision making by familiarizing the participants with a broad understanding of static and dynamic games under conditions of complete and incomplete information.

The specific objectives of this Workshop are as follows:

(a)              Equip participants with a good understanding of Game Theory

(b)              Enhance and improve the capacity of participants to characterize and model economic, financial and social problems more robustly based on Game Theory.

(c)              Build and strengthen human capacity in game theoretic modelling among Nigerian researchers, lecturers and policy makers.

(d)              Illustrate how Game Theory can be applied to important economic and social issues and problems in the country.

(e)              Initiate, promote and strengthen networking among researchers, lecturers and policy analysts in both public and private sectors.

3.         Justification for the Workshop

Game Theory have globally expanded our horizon concerning the analysis, design and implementation of robust policies to deal more effectively with social and economic problems. Of particular interest for our environment, Game Theory has illuminated the analysis of social institutions, collective action, trust, the design of regulatory mechanism and institutions, auction and bidding, deregulation and competition policy, pricing, policy credibility, reputation, transactions and the role of institutions. Therefore, given its versatility as evident in its significant contributions to policy issues in other parts of the world, why has Game Theory of minimal use in Nigeria? Rectifying this anomaly is the primary justification for this workshop. The mathematical nature of most of the presentation of Game Theory in the literature and the steep learning curve in unstructured learning has made this invaluable tool to be inaccessible to many mainstream economists in the country. Against the background of poor accessibility of most researchers and policy analysts to this analytical tool, another justification for this workshop on Game Theory is the need to reduce the steep learning curve associated with unstructured learning of the tool. In addition, the exposure of researchers to game theoretic analysis will not enhance a deeper analysis of the numerous political, social and economic issues in the country, but also fortify and/or complement the skills of researchers and lecturers in Econometrics and Computable General Equilibrium Modelling with Game Theory. Summing up, the key justification for this workshop is to fill part of this gap in the researchers and policy makers’ toolkit.

4.         Scope of the Workshop

The workshop will focus on the central concepts in Game Theory.

The workshop will be organized along the following themes.

1. Game Theory, Rational Choice and Institutions
2. Defining and Modelling a Game in Strategic and Extensive Forms
3. Static Games with Complete Information
4. Dynamic Games with Complete Information
5. Repeated Games (Finite and Infinite)
6. Static Bayesian Games of Incomplete Information
7. Dynamic Games of Incomplete Information
8. Signaling Games
9. Bargaining
10. Auction Theory
11. Mechanism Design
12. Evolutionary Game Theory

Specific applications will include among others, analysis of incentives in social institutions of importance to economic and social development in the country. The Design of Regulatory Mechanism and Institutions are examples.

A follow-up workshop to consolidate the gains of this workshop will follow soon. It would focus more on applications.

6.         Workshop Approach

a.   Presentations and Lectures

b.   Work Group Sessions

1. Individual Project
2. Assignments and Quizzes
3. Group Discussions
4. Computer-based Problem Solving
5. Applications in governance, corruption, regulatory policy design, auctions, financial sector performance, business strategies, political economy issues, environmental issues including climate change, economics of networks, and bargaining.

7.         Workshop Outcomes

After completion of the workshop, the participants should be able to understand and apply game theory in their research and teaching. Thus, the main outcome of the workshop is skills development and empowerment of participants in the use of Game Theory in the analysis and design of policy and implementation issues. A second outcome is capacity building.

8.         Target Beneficiary

Researchers

Lecturers

Policy makers

Directors and Managers and others in strategic and business development

9.         Workshop Duration

The workshop will last for two weeks. (Tentative Date, JULY 2017)

10         Prerequisite for The Course

The main requirement for participation is open-mindedness. However, knowledge of mathematics and probability theory for social sciences is of advantage.

11.        Facilitators

The resource persons are Professor Akin Iwayemi and Dr. Hakeem Kilishi.

12        Workshop Location

CEAR, University of Ibadan. Ibadan