A Quantitative Study of Alliance Structures in the Warring States of Ancient China, 453-221 B.C.
Date
2015-05-21
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This study makes a unique contribution to applied game theory and to the studies of Shiji (Records of Grand Historian) and the Warring States Period of ancient China (453-221B.C.) by constructing and analyzing the annual series of alliance structures or partitions of the seven states during the period of two hundred thirty three years. It shows that twenty six of the eight hundred seventy seven possible partitions were observed, and that the three most frequent partitions were the finest partition (146 years), partitions with four singletons and one three-member coalition (63 years), and partitions with five singletons and one two-member coalition (33 years). Such quantitative results have future applications in alliance studies, game theory, and international economics. They also provide a list of future research topics such as the unknown statistical properties of a series of partition of seven elements with 233 observations.
Description
Keywords
Annual Series of Alliance Structures, The Finest Partition, The Hezong Policy, The Lianheng Policy, The Warring States.
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Economics
Program
Economics