Ariel Rubinstein (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: אריאל רובינשטיין; born April 13, 1951) is an Israeli

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, 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 ...

who works in economic theory,

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed ...

and

bounded rationality Bounded rationality is the idea that rationality is limited when individuals decision-making, make decisions, and under these limitations, rational individuals will select a decision that is satisficing, satisfactory rather than optimal. Limitat ...

Biography

Ariel Rubinstein is a professor of economics at the School of Economics at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

and the Department of Economics at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. He studied mathematics and economics at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

, 1972–1979 (B.Sc. Mathematics, Economics and Statistics, 1974; M.A. Economics, 1975; M.Sc Mathematics, 1976; Ph.D. Economics, 1979). In 1982, he published "Perfect equilibrium in a bargaining model", an important contribution to the theory of

bargaining In the social sciences, bargaining or haggling is a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a Goods and services, good or service debate the price or nature of a Financial transaction, transaction. If the bargaining produces agree ...

. The model is known also as a Rubinstein bargaining model. It describes two-person bargaining as an extensive game with

perfect information Perfect information is a concept in game theory and economics that describes a situation where all players in a game or all participants in a market have knowledge of all relevant information in the system. This is different than complete informat ...

in which the players alternate offers. A key assumption is that the players are impatient. The main result gives conditions under which the game has a unique subgame perfect equilibrium and characterizes this equilibrium.

Relevance of game theory

Rubinstein has argued against the relevance of game theory to practical

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

. He characterizes game theory as a way to abstractly describe idealized strategic situations stripped of details, but says this is useless in real life, where many details are relevant. He reports "I have not seen, in all my life, a single example where a game theorist could give advice, based on the theory, which was more useful than that of the layman."

Honours and awards

Rubinstein was elected a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1995), a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in (1994) and the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics, with approximately 23,000 members. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Review, an ...

(1995). In 1985 he was elected a fellow of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools in the practice of econometrics. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians o ...

, and served as its president in 2004. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

Tilburg University Tilburg University is a Catholic research university specializing in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, law, business sciences, theology and humanities, located in Tilburg, Netherlands. Tilburg has a student population of about 19,1 ...

. He has received the Bruno Prize (2000), the

Israel Prize The Israel Prize (; ''pras israél'') is an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state's highest cultural honor. History Prior to the Israel Prize, the most significant award in the arts was the Dizengoff Prize and in Israel ...

for economics (2002), the Nemmers Prize in Economics (2004), the EMET Prize (2006). and the Rothschild Prize (2010).

Published works

''Bargaining and Markets''
with Martin J. Osborne,

Academic Press Academic Press (AP) is an academic book publisher founded in 1941. It launched a British division in the 1950s. Academic Press was acquired by Harcourt, Brace & World in 1969. Reed Elsevier said in 2000 it would buy Harcourt, a deal complete ...

1990
''A Course in Game Theory''
with Martin J. Osborne,

MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

, 1994.
''Modeling Bounded Rationality''

, 1998.
''Economics and Language''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2000.
''Lecture Notes in Microeconomic Theory: The Economic Agent''

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 2006. *
Economic Fables
', Open Book Publishers, 2012.
''AGADOT HAKALKALA (heb.)''
Kineret, Zmora, Bitan, 2009.

References

External links

Personal Web site

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubinstein, Ariel 1951 births Living people Game theorists 20th-century Israeli economists 21st-century Israeli economists Israel Prize in economics recipients Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Econometric Society Academic staff of Tel Aviv University Presidents of the Econometric Society Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Behavioral economists New York University faculty