Reinhard SeltenBorn 5 Oct 1930.German mathematician who shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics with John F. Nash and John C. Harsanyi for their development of game theory, a branch of mathematics that examines rivalries among competitors with mixed interests. Selten achieved a decisive breakthrough in game theory: The introduction of the concepts of sub-game perfect and perfect equillibria reduced the set of Nash equillibria drastically by excluding threats that are not credible. Thus, more precise and sensible predictions can be made for many games, e.g. markets. Additionally, game theory has found applications in all of social sciences and even in biology. |