Solving the Beautiful Mind Coordination Problem

Ted C. Bergstrom, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

There are n boys and m girls. The boys are all expected utility maximizers and agree about the desirability of the prospect of dating each girl. Boys assign utility v_i to a date with girl i, where v_1>v_2>\dots v_n>0 and a utility of 0to having no date. Girls don't care which boy they go out with and they prefer having a date to not having a date. We find the Nash equilibrium strategy for boys.