Mathematical Analyses of Decisions, Voting and Games
Mathematical Analyses of Decisions, Voting and Games

Author: Michael A. Jones

Publisher: American Mathematical Society

Published: 2024-03-25

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1470469782

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This volume contains the proceedings of the virtual AMS Special Session on Mathematics of Decisions, Elections and Games, held on April 8, 2022. Decision theory, voting theory, and game theory are three related areas of mathematics that involve making optimal decisions in different contexts. While these three areas are distinct, much of the recent research in these fields borrows techniques from other branches of mathematics such as algebra, combinatorics, convex geometry, logic, representation theory, etc. The papers in this volume demonstrate how the mathematics of decisions, elections, and games can be used to analyze problems from the social sciences.

Mathematics and Democracy
Mathematics and Democracy

Author: Steven J. Brams

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-12-02

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1400835593

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Voters today often desert a preferred candidate for a more viable second choice to avoid wasting their vote. Likewise, parties to a dispute often find themselves unable to agree on a fair division of contested goods. In Mathematics and Democracy, Steven Brams, a leading authority in the use of mathematics to design decision-making processes, shows how social-choice and game theory could make political and social institutions more democratic. Using mathematical analysis, he develops rigorous new procedures that enable voters to better express themselves and that allow disputants to divide goods more fairly. One of the procedures that Brams proposes is "approval voting," which allows voters to vote for as many candidates as they like or consider acceptable. There is no ranking, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The voter no longer has to consider whether a vote for a preferred but less popular candidate might be wasted. In the same vein, Brams puts forward new, more equitable procedures for resolving disputes over divisible and indivisible goods.

The Mathematics of Decisions, Elections, and Games
The Mathematics of Decisions, Elections, and Games

Author: Karl-Dieter Crisman

Publisher: American Mathematical Society

Published: 2014-08-29

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0821898663

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This volume contains the proceedings of two AMS Special Sessions on The Mathematics of Decisions, Elections, and Games, held January 4, 2012, in Boston, MA, and January 11-12, 2013, in San Diego, CA. Decision theory, voting theory, and game theory are three intertwined areas of mathematics that involve making optimal decisions under different contexts. Although these areas include their own mathematical results, much of the recent research in these areas involves developing and applying new perspectives from their intersection with other branches of mathematics, such as algebra, representation theory, combinatorics, convex geometry, dynamical systems, etc. The papers in this volume highlight and exploit the mathematical structure of decisions, elections, and games to model and to analyze problems from the social sciences.

Decision-Making in Committees
Decision-Making in Committees

Author: Nicola Friederike Maaser

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2010-01-22

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 3642041531

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Political and economic institutions are typically governed by committees that face the challenge to reconcile the preferences of their members. How should decision rules be designed to generate fair and sustainable agreements, for example if committee members represent groups of different sizes? This book uses game-theoretic concepts and models to address the issue of political decision-making processes. In addition to providing a survey on basic game-theoretic tools in the analysis of political decisions, the author looks at specific issues such as two-tiered voting systems or the influence of lobbyists on legislative committees, and shows how the models can be applied to real-world contexts such as the EU decision-making institutions.

Games and Decision Making
Games and Decision Making

Author: Charalambos D. Aliprantis

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780195300222

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Games and Decision Making, Second Edition, is a unique blend of decision theory and game theory. From classical optimization to modern game theory, authors Charalambos D. Aliprantis and Subir K. Chakrabarti show the importance of mathematical knowledge in understanding and analyzing issues in decision making. Through an imaginative selection of topics, Aliprantis and Chakrabarti treat decision and game theory as part of one body of knowledge. They move from problems involving the individual decision-maker to progressively more complex problems such as sequential rationality, auctions, and bargaining. By building each chapter on material presented earlier, the authors offer a self-contained and comprehensive treatment of these topics. Successfully class-tested in an advanced undergraduate course at the Krannert School of Management and in a graduate course in economics at Indiana University, Games and Decision Making, Second Edition, is an essential text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students of decision theory and game theory. The book is accessible to students who have a good basic understanding of elementary calculus and probability theory.

Numbers Rule
Numbers Rule

Author: George Szpiro

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0691209081

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The author takes the general reader on a tour of the mathematical puzzles and paradoxes inherent in voting systems, such as the Alabama Paradox, in which an increase in the number of seats in the Congress could actually lead to a reduced number of representatives for a state, and the Condorcet Paradox, which demonstrates that the winner of elections featuring more than two candidates does not necessarily reflect majority preferences. Szpiro takes a roughly chronological approach to the topic, traveling from ancient Greece to the present and, in addition to offering explanations of the various mathematical conundrums of elections and voting, also offers biographical details on the mathematicians and other thinkers who thought about them, including Plato, Pliny the Younger, Pierre Simon Laplace, Thomas Jefferson, John von Neumann, and Kenneth Arrow.

Chaotic Elections!
Chaotic Elections!

Author: Donald Saari

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2001-04-03

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780821886168

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What does the 2000 U.S. presidential election have in common with selecting a textbook for a calculus course in your department? Was Ralph Nader's influence on the election of George W. Bush greater than the now-famous chads? In Chaotic Elections!, Don Saari analyzes these questions, placing them in the larger context of voting systems in general. His analysis shows that the fundamental problems with the 2000 presidential election are not with the courts, recounts, or defective ballots, but are caused by the very way Americans vote for president. This expository book shows how mathematics can help to identify and characterize a disturbingly large number of paradoxical situations that result from the choice of a voting procedure. Moreover, rather than being able to dismiss them as anomalies, the likelihood of a dubious election result is surprisingly large. These consequences indicate that election outcomes--whether for president, the site of the next Olympics, the chair of a university department, or a prize winner--can differ from what the voters really wanted. They show that by using an inadequate voting procedure, we can, inadvertently, choose badly. To add to the difficulties, it turns out that the mathematical structures of voting admit several strategic opportunities, which are described. Finally, mathematics also helps identify positive results: By using mathematical symmetries, we can identify what the phrase ``what the voters really want'' might mean and obtain a unique voting method that satisfies these conditions. Saari's book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand not only what happened in the presidential election of 2000, but also how we can avoid similar problems from appearing anytime any group is making a choice using a voting procedure. Reading this book requires little more than high school mathematics and an interest in how the apparently simple situation of voting can lead to surprising paradoxes.

A Behavioral Theory of Elections
A Behavioral Theory of Elections

Author: Jonathan Bendor

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-02-06

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 069113507X

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Most theories of elections assume that voters and political actors are fully rational. This title provides a behavioral theory of elections based on the notion that all actors - politicians as well as voters - are only boundedly rational.

Chance, Strategy, and Choice
Chance, Strategy, and Choice

Author: Samuel B. Smith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2015-06-29

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 1107084520

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Games and elections are fundamental activities in society with applications in economics, political science, and sociology. These topics offer familiar, current, and lively subjects for a course in mathematics. This classroom-tested textbook, primarily intended for a general education course in game theory at the freshman or sophomore level, provides an elementary treatment of games and elections. Starting with basics such as gambling, zero-sum and combinatorial games, Nash equilibria, social dilemmas, and fairness and impossibility theorems for elections, the text then goes further into the theory with accessible proofs of advanced topics such as the Sprague-Grundy theorem and Arrow's impossibility theorem. * Uses an integrative approach to probability, game, and social choice theory * Provides a gentle introduction to the logic of mathematical proof, thus equipping readers with the necessary tools for further mathematical studies * Contains numerous exercises and examples of varying levels of difficulty * Requires only a high school mathematical background.

Evaluation and Optimization of Electoral Systems
Evaluation and Optimization of Electoral Systems

Author: Pietro Grilli di Cortona

Publisher: SIAM

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13: 0898714222

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This monograph offers a systematic quantitative approach to the analysis, evaluation, and design of electoral systems. Today, electoral reform is of concern to newborn democracies as well as many old ones. The authors use mathematical models and automatic procedures, when possible, to solve some of the problems that arise in the comparison of existing systems as well as in the construction of new ones. One distinctive feature of the book is the emphasis on single- and multiple-criteria optimization methods. This powerful tool kit will help political researchers evaluate and choose an appropriate electoral system. A general formal model is included as well as a coding system to describe, identify, and classify electoral systems. Evaluation criteria and the corresponding performance indicators are discussed.