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LeadAfrik
Intermediate · Self-paced2026 Edition

Game Theory: Strategy, Conflict & Cooperation in Africa

A complete, rigorous game-theory course built from the ground up on African strategic problems — mobile-money price wars, cartels and collusion, chamas and repeated trust, spectrum auctions, coalition governments, and the AfCFTA. From dominance and Nash equilibrium through repeated games, bargaining, mechanism design and the Shapley value, every idea is taught with the mathematics and a worked African case.

13

Modules

~11h 55m

Reading time

Intermediate

Level

Self-paced

Format

§

Syllabus

  1. 01

    What a game is: players, strategies, payoffs

    Strategic interdependence, the normal form, rationality and common knowledge — reading a payoff matrix through M-Pesa vs Airtel Money.

    ~45 minModule 01
    →
  2. 02

    Dominance and the Prisoner's Dilemma

    Dominant strategies and iterated elimination — why cartels, tax evasion and overgrazing are all the same trap.

    ~50 minModule 02
    →
  3. 03

    Nash equilibrium and coordination

    Best responses, pure-strategy equilibria, multiplicity and Schelling focal points — the mobile-money standards game.

    ~55 minModule 03
    →
  4. 04

    Mixed strategies and randomisation

    When there is no pure equilibrium: the indifference principle, solved on KRA audits vs taxpayer evasion.

    ~55 minModule 04
    →
  5. 05

    Sequential games, backward induction & commitment

    Game trees, subgame perfection, credible vs empty threats — Safaricom entry deterrence and central-bank commitment.

    ~60 minModule 05
    →
  6. 06

    Repeated games and the roots of cooperation

    How repetition sustains cooperation: the discount-factor threshold and the folk theorem, derived on the chama / ROSCA.

    ~60 minModule 06
    →
  7. 07

    Bargaining and negotiation

    The Nash bargaining solution and Rubinstein alternating offers — splitting resource revenue and power-sharing pies.

    ~55 minModule 07
    →
  8. 08

    Collective action and the commons

    Free-riding, Olson's logic and Ostrom's design principles — harambee, water associations and wildlife conservancies.

    ~55 minModule 08
    →
  9. 09

    Signalling, screening and information

    Lemons, moral hazard and costly signals — and how joint-liability microfinance and mobile credit scoring solve them.

    ~60 minModule 09
    →
  10. 10

    Auctions and mechanism design

    The four auctions, why Vickrey bidding is truthful, revenue equivalence and the winner's curse — spectrum, tea and T-bill auctions.

    ~60 minModule 10
    →
  11. 11

    Evolutionary and behavioural game theory

    ESS and replicator dynamics, hawk–dove and the ultimatum game — and why corruption can be a stable equilibrium.

    ~55 minModule 11
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  12. 12

    Coalitions, conflict and institutions

    The core, the Shapley value and power indices; why wars happen; institutions as self-enforcing equilibria — computed on a power-sharing cabinet.

    ~55 minModule 12
    →
  13. 13

    Capstone: the AfCFTA as a strategic system

    The whole toolkit on one problem — plus an analyst's playbook for modelling any strategic policy question.

    ~50 minModule 13
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How to use this course

Start with module 01 if the material is new; skip ahead if you have prior exposure. Each module is self-contained but the arc is sequential — the projects in the final module assume the toolkit from modules 1-11. Every module ends with key takeaways and a curated further-reading list with primary sources.