Michael Suk-Young Chwe

Michael Suk-Young Chwe studies how people coordinate their actions when each person wants to participate only if enough others do. He finds that while coordination sometimes occurs through evolution or adaptation, it is often the result of explicit communication. Chwe's recent papers, including Communication and Coordination in Social Networks, Structure and Strategy in Collective Action, and Strategic Reliability of Communication Networks, investigate how communication networks can resolve coordination problems. 

Michael Suk-Young Chwe teaches game theory in the political science department at UCLA. He started watching Austenadaptations with his kids, which naturally led to reading the novels. The connections between Austen's novels and game theory were too strong and numerous to ignore, and thus he was moved to write "Jane Austen, Game Theorist."

His most recent book, Jane Austen: Game Theorist, finds common ground between the study of people's choices and the writing of the early 19th-century English novelist. Other areas of interest include jury decision-making and television advertising. Chwe has served on the University of Chicago and New York University faculty. He teaches courses on game theory for graduates and undergraduates.