Reinhard Selten

Reinhard Justus Reginald Selten (German: [ˈʁaɪnhaʁt ˈzɛltn̩]

Biography
Selten was born in Breslau (Wrocław) in Lower Silesia, now in
Poland, to a Jewish father, Adolf Selten (a blind bookseller; d.
1942[2][3]), and Protestant mother, Käthe Luther.[3][4] Reinhard
Selten was raised as Protestant.[4]

After a brief family exile in Saxony and Austria, Selten returned to Selten in 2001
Hesse, Germany after the war and, in high school, read an article
Born Reinhard Justus
in Fortune magazine about game theory by the business writer
Reginald Selten
John D. McDonald. He recalled later, he would occupy his "mind
with problems of elementary geometry and algebra" while walking 5 October 1930
back and forth to school during that time.[2][3] He studied Breslau, Weimar
mathematics at Goethe University Frankfurt and obtained his Germany Wrocław,
diploma in 1957. He then worked as scientific assistant to Heinz Poland)
Sauermann until 1967. In 1959, he married with Elisabeth Died 23 August 2016
Langreiner. They had no children. In 1961, he also received his (aged 85)
doctorate in Frankfurt in mathematics with a thesis on the
Poznań, Poland
evaluation of n-person games.
Nationality German
He was a visiting professor at Berkeley and taught from 1969 to Education Goethe University
1972 at the Free University of Berlin and, from 1972 to 1984, at
Frankfurt
the University of Bielefeld. He then accepted a professorship at the
University of Bonn. There he built the BonnEconLab, a laboratory Known for Game theory
for experimental economic research, where he was active even Awards Nobel Memorial
after his retirement. Prize in Economic
Sciences (1994)
Selten was professor emeritus at the University of Bonn, Germany,
and held several honorary doctoral degrees. He had been an Scientific career
Esperantist since 1959[4] and met his wife through the Esperanto Fields Economics
movement.[5] He was a member and co-founder of the
Institutions University of Bonn
International Academy of Sciences San Marino.
Technical University
of Berlin[1]
Doctoral Wolfgang Franz
advisor
Doctoral Eric van Damme
students
For the 2009 European Parliament election, he was the top Influenced Axel Ockenfels
candidate for the German wing of Europe – Democracy – Benny Moldovanu
Esperanto.[6] Abdolkarim
Sadrieh[2]
Work
For his work in game theory, 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.[2]

He is also well known for his work in bounded rationality, 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.[7]

Bibliography
Preispolitik der Mehrproduktenunternehmung in der statischen Theorie, Berlin-Heidelberg-
New York: Springer-Verlag, 1970, ISBN 978-3-642-48888-7 - in German
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), 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
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
List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References
1. Jain, C. "Institutions - Technical University of Berlin" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/econ
omic-sciences/1994/selten/biographical/). Reinhard Selten Biographical.
2. Roberts, Sam, "Reinhard Selten, Whose Strides in Game Theory Led to a Nobel, Dies at 85"
(https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/business/economy/reinhard-selten-whose-strides-in-g
ame-theory-led-to-a-nobel-dies-at-85.html), New York Times, September 2, 2016. Retrieved
2016-09-03.
3. O'Connor, J J, and E F Robertson, "Reinhard Selten" (http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Bi
ographies/Selten.html), www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk, November 2010. Retrieved 2016-09-
03.
4. From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1994, Editor Tore Frängsmyr, [Nobel Foundation],
Stockholm, 1995 (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1994/selten-autobi
o.html)
5. Lins, Ulrich & Ertl, István. "Intervjuo kun Reinhard Selten, Nobelpreemiito" Esperanto (n°
1065-12, December 1994, p. 203
6. Eŭropo – Demokratio – Esperanto: Germanio (http://e-d-e.org/-DE-Germanio-)
7. Frey, Bruno S., "Publishing as prostitution? – Choosing between one's own ideas and
academic success" (https://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/388_03.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.
org/web/20160316235039/http://www.bsfrey.ch/articles/388_03.pdf) 2016-03-16 at the
Wayback Machine, bsfrey.ch p. 215 (11).

External links
Laboratory for Experimental Economics (https://web.archive.org/web/20060130213634/htt
p://www.bonneconlab.uni-bonn.de/econlab/), at the University of Bonn, Germany (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20030621084618/http://www.uni-bonn.de/index_en.shtml)
Reinhard Selten (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/713) on Nobelprize.org
IDEAS/RePEc (https://ideas.repec.org/e/pse24.html)
Reinhard Selten (https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=56908) at the Mathematics
Genealogy Project
Economista alemán, nacido en Breslau (actualmente Wroclaw, en Polonia). (http://vvvvvvvv.
scriptmania.com/newfolder/megaw/nb/selten.htm)
"Reinhard Selten (1930– )" (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Selten.html). The
Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of Economics and Liberty (2nd ed.). Liberty
Fund. 2008.

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