What to explore
Change parameters and watch the model adjust.
- Payoff entries for the four action pairs
- Preset toggles for coordination, prisoner's dilemma, and matching-pennies style cases
Advanced microeconomics
2x2 Normal-Form Game
A strategic-interaction notebook that highlights best responses, Nash equilibria, and the contrast between coordination and prisoner's-dilemma style incentives.
Focus
Best responses, equilibrium selection, and strategic tension
Change payoffs to see how best-response maps, equilibrium outcomes, and strategic tension shift across familiar 2x2 games.Core ideas
Interpret the mechanics before you chase the graphs.
- A Nash equilibrium is a mutual best response, not necessarily a socially efficient outcome.
- Changing one payoff can alter both players' strategic incentives and the equilibrium set.
- Game classification becomes easier when best responses are shown explicitly.
Learning goals
What this model should help students internalize.
- Construct best responses in a two-player normal-form game.
- Identify pure-strategy Nash equilibria and classify common strategic environments.
- Interpret why coordination problems and prisoner's-dilemma incentives feel different even in the same 2x2 structure.
Prerequisites
Concepts to review before diving in.
- Comfort reading payoff matrices
- Basic optimization logic and strategic reasoning
Next models to study
Keep moving through the track.
Upper-undergraduate econometrics
Simple OLS Regression
Adjust the data-generating process and watch the fitted line, coefficient estimates, and residual behavior move with noise, slope, and sample size.
Intermediate price theory
Supply and Demand Equilibrium
Track how intercepts and shocks shift equilibrium price, quantity, and total surplus in a competitive market.