The consequences of these developments and trends are the emergence of a ‘dealing culture’ that threatens to overwhelm other forms of decision-making and consume the policy-making environment with the immediacy of its dealing logic. The contestant is trying for the case with 1 million,while the banker s stated goal is to get the contestant to go home with as little money as possible while also trying to keep the game going for as long as possible.

The Barker-Thompson Rule is presented as an example of a particular type of market construction operating in a game theoretic context, while the ‘matching engine’ is explored in a variety of contexts where it is argued to have become a standardized technique indicating to a possible reshaping of the economic terrain more generally. The game show, which was created in the Netherlands, pits acontestant against the mysterious banker. Principal amongst these are game theory and matching algorithms. It does this by linking the deal with several features of market design.

This article raises the issue of why the idea of a ‘deal’ has become so prevalent in the discussion of political matters and policy proposals associated with future economic developments. Deal or no deal? Some reflections on the ‘Baker-Thompson rule,’ ‘matching,’ and ‘market design’.

Deal or no deal game theory