When I left Russia back in late 2006, attempting to cross a busy Moscow street bordered on suicide. Instead of slowing down before a zebra crossing, Russian drivers were in the habit of accelerating so as to signal their intention NOT to stop. Understandably, pedestrians had no choice but to adjust their street crossing strategies accordingly.

On December 4, ISET hosted a lecture by Professor Avner Shaked from the University of Bonn – one of the greatest modern game theorists who also delivers courses in game theory and industrial organizations at ISET. The talk was devoted to a serious flaw uncovered concerning famous economic journals the Quarterly Journal of Economics (QJE) and Econometrica.

Everyone using the service of the Tbilisi marshrutkas experiences one of two extreme cases: the marshrutka either moves tantalizingly slowly or excessively fast. How can this apparent paradox be explained? In search of an answer, let us turn to game theory, one of the appealings outgrows of mathematical economics.