Theory of Games and Economic Behavior

Abstract

THIS book is based on the theory that the economic man attempts to maximize his share of the world's goods and services in the same way that a participant in a game involving many players attempts to maximize his winnings. The authors point out that the maximization of individual wealth is not an ordinary problem in variational calculus, because the individual does not control, and may even be ignorant of, some of the variables. The general theory of social games, in their view, offers a simplified conceptual model of economic behaviour, and a study of that theory can do much to throw light on certain basic concepts of economics, for example, that of utility.

Theory of Games and Economic Behavior

By John Von Neumann Oskar Morgenstern. Pp. xviii + 625. (Princetown, N.J.: Princetown University Press; London: Sir Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1944.) 66s. 6d.