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Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (; 5 October 1930 – 23 August 2016) was a German
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
, who won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash). He is also well known for his work in
bounded rationality Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisfactory rather than optimal. Limitations include the difficulty of ...
and can be considered one of the founding fathers of experimental economics.


Biography

Selten was born in Breslau (Wrocław) in Lower Silesia, now in Poland, to a Jewish father, Adolf Selten (blind bookseller; d. 1942Roberts, Sam
"Reinhard Selten, Whose Strides in Game Theory Led to a Nobel, Dies at 85"
New York ''Times'', September 2, 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-03.
), and Protestant mother, Käthe Luther.O'Connor, J J, and E F Robertson
"Reinhard Selten"
''www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk'', November 2010. Retrieved 2016-09-03.

/ref> Reinhard Selten was raised as Protestant. After a brief family exile in Saxony and Austria, Selten returned to Hesse, Germany after the war and, in high school, read an article in
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
magazine about game theory by the business writer John D. McDonald. He recalled later, he would occupy his "mind with problems of elementary geometry and algebra" while walking back and forth to school during that time. He studied mathematics at Goethe University Frankfurt and obtained his diploma in 1957. He then worked as scientific assistant to Heinz Sauermann until 1967. In 1959, he married with Elisabeth Langreiner. They had no children. In 1961, he also received his doctorate in Frankfurt in mathematics with a thesis on the evaluation of n-person games. He was a visiting professor at Berkeley and taught from 1969 to 1972 at the
Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and ...
and, from 1972 to 1984, at the University of Bielefeld. He then accepted a professorship at the
University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...
. There he built the BonnEconLab, a laboratory for experimental economic research, where he was active even after his retirement. Selten was professor emeritus at the
University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...
, Germany, and held several honorary doctoral degrees. He had been an
Esperantist An Esperantist ( eo, esperantisto) is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperan ...
since 1959 and met his wife through the Esperanto movement. He was a member and co-founder of the International Academy of Sciences San Marino. For the
2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...
, he was the top candidate for the German wing of Europe – Democracy – Esperanto.


Work

For his work in
game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has applic ...
, Selten won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (shared with John Harsanyi and John Nash). Selten was Germany's first and, at the time of his death, only Nobel winner for economics. He is also well known for his work in
bounded rationality Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisfactory rather than optimal. Limitations include the difficulty of ...
, and can be considered one of the founding fathers of experimental economics. With Gerd Gigerenzer he edited the book ''Bounded Rationality: The Adaptive Toolbox'' (2001). He developed an example of a game called Selten's Horse because of its extensive form representation. His last work was "Impulse Balance Theory and its Extension by an Additional Criterion". He is noted for his publishing in non-refereed journals to avoid being forced to make unwanted changes to his work.Frey, Bruno S.
"Publishing as prostitution? – Choosing between one's own ideas and academic success"
, ''bsfrey.ch'' p. 215 (11).


Bibliography

* Preispolitik der Mehrproduktenunternehmung in der statischen Theorie, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag, 1970, - in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
* General Equilibrium with Price-Making Firms (with Thomas Marschak), Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag, 1974, ISBN 978-3-662-07369-8 * A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games (with
John C. Harsanyi John Charles Harsanyi ( hu, Harsányi János Károly; May 29, 1920 – August 9, 2000) was a Hungarian-American economist and the recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1994. He is best known for his contributions to the ...
), Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT-Press. (1988) * Models of Strategic Rationality, Theory and Decision Library, Series C: Game Theory, Mathematical Programming and Operations Research, Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (1988) * Game Equilibrium Models IV, Berlin, New York, Springer Verlag, 1991, ISBN 978-3-662-07369-8. * Rational Interaction - Essays in Honor of John C. Harsanyi, Berlin, New York, Springer-Verlag, 1992, ISBN 978-3-642-08136-1. * Enkonduko en la Teorion de Lingvaj Ludoj – Ĉu mi lernu Esperanton? (with Jonathan Pool), Berlin-Paderborn: Akademia Libroservo, Institut für Kybernetik. (1995) – in
Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...
* Game Theory and Economic Behavior: Selected Essays, 2. vol Cheltenham-Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. (1999) * New edition of: Models of Strategic Rationality (1988), with a Chinese Introduction. Outstanding Academic Works on Economics by Nobel Prize Winners. Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (2000) * Chinese Translation of: Models of Strategic Rationality (1988). Outstanding Academic Works on Economics by Nobel Prize Winners. Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (2000) * Russian Translation of: A General Theory of Equilibrium Selection in Games (with John C. Harsanyi), Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT-Press. (2000) * Gigerenzer, G., & Selten, R. (Eds.). (2001). Bounded rationality: The adaptive toolbox. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. * Impulse Balance Theory and its Extension by an Additional Criterion. BoD. (2015)


See also

*
Subgame perfect Nash equilibrium In game theory, a subgame perfect equilibrium (or subgame perfect Nash equilibrium) is a refinement of a Nash equilibrium used in dynamic games. A strategy profile is a subgame perfect equilibrium if it represents a Nash equilibrium of every s ...


References


External links


Laboratory for Experimental Economics
at th
University of Bonn, Germany
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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Selten, Reinhard 1930 births 2016 deaths Nobel laureates in Economics German Nobel laureates Game theorists German economists German Esperantists 20th-century German mathematicians Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Members of the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Technical University of Berlin faculty University of Bonn faculty Free University of Berlin faculty Goethe University Frankfurt alumni German people of Jewish descent People from the Province of Lower Silesia Writers from Wrocław Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Fellows of the Econometric Society Nancy L. Schwartz Memorial Lecture speakers