Experience from a course in game theory: Pre- and postclass problem sets as a didactic device

The paper summarizes my experience in teaching an undergraduate course in g ame theory in 1998. Students were required to submit two types of problem s ets: preclass problem sets, which served as experiments, and postclass stan dard problem sets. The separation emphasizes the limited relevance of game theory as a toot for making predictions and giving advice. The paper summar izes the results of 41 experiments which were conducted during the course. It is argued that the crude experimental methods produced results which are not substantially different from those obtained using stricter experimenta l methods. For further information on the 41 experiments and results, see h ttp://www.princeton.edu/similar to ariel/99/gt100.html. (C) 1999 Academic P ress.