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Ep. 142 Explaining John Nash’s Dissertation and Why Russell Crowe Got It Backwards

In the Ron Howard movie “A Beautiful Mind,” Russell Crowe plays John Nash, a major figure in game theory. Although it was a good movie, it totally misconstrues Nash’s doctoral dissertation and how it fit into the pre-existing literature. In this episode, Bob sets the record straight.

Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:

The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

About the author, Robert

Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.

1 Comment

  1. Charles Rosa on 01/31/2021 at 8:44 PM

    Thank you for this podcast. I recall watching that movie nearly 20 years ago, and thinking they had got it backwards too. I love equilibrium theory in general, and the Nash equilibrium in particular. Though I do a lot with optimization (mostly MIPs….in a variety of industries), I’ve not had a lot of opportunity to formulate and solve equilibrium models. Great stuff, nonetheless. Thanks again!

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