Boxes 1.1 1.2 2.1 3.1 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 5.1 5.2 5.3 6.1 6.2 7.1 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 10.1 10.2 10.3 11.1 11.2 12.1 12.2 The Nathan Rothschild Waterloo legend The Glove (Friedrich Schiller) The information revolution in economics The information content of the universe Man against nature Information in payment systems The Elementary Game Alice’s dice The 37 per cent rule The Uniform distribution Antonio from Helvetia Square market Business patents Maximizing monopoly profit Riskless and risky arbitrage The stock market as a beauty contest “Irrational Exuberance” We cannot agree to disagree The numbers guessing game (or “k-game”) The Poisson distribution Betrayal “Touch wood”. Why we bargain with nature HD-DVD versus Blu-ray Deer or hare? Defending the Hong Kong Dollar Two-sided markets Leadership and advertisement A glossary of collective behavior The Swatch fever Plunging penguins The rational expectations hypothesis (REH) Markov Process Auctioning off the Empire Private and common value 2 2 5 13 31 33 37 40 71 74 76 84 100 124 147 152 159 162 164 168 170 174 175 178 179 190 204 206 220 230 235 255 258 xvi Boxes 12.3 12.4 13.1 14.1 14.2 15.1 15.2 16.1 16.2 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 The winner’s curse in practice Google and the winner’s curse Prophesy without prevention Solomon’s Judgement Econspeak versus Lawsperanto Microfinance Reporting workplace injuries The Gotthard tunnel “Off-Piste Top Tips” Natascha’s pact with herself When the world failed to end Maximizing log utility The Missouri Voluntary Exclusion Program 259 265 292 306 310 353 363 368 397 403 407 412 427