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:
- John Nash’s doctoral dissertation.
- Bob’s link for Liberty Classroom. (If you click this link and then register, the site will know you came from me.)
- Sylvia Nasar’s book that inspired the Ron Howard movie about Nash. #CommissionsEarned (As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)
- A good explanation of the Allais Paradox (which shows limits of expected utility theory).
- Bob Murphy Show ep. 96, which starts with critique of use of game theory.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Research Assistant Professor with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech, Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute, and co-host with Tom Woods of the podcast "Contra Krugman."
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!