Home Page for Economics 141 (Current Topics in Microeconomics)


Economics 141, Current Topics in Microeconomics
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This page holds class material related to Economics 141, including the syllabus, the reading list, and the scoreboard for the in-class experiments. As we go along the course, I will post homeworks, reading assignments, solution sets, and exam study guides. Corrections to problem sets, solutions, and exam study guides will also be posted here if necessary.

Problem Set #4

Paper for Problem Set #4



Results of the principal-agent game:

The equilibrium, assuming orange scoresheets are taken as a signal of high effort cost, is salaries of either 6 or 3, and agents to put forth effort. The average payoff to workers is 1 or 0.5, and the average to principals is 3.33 or 5.83. We played 5 rounds, so the expected score is 5 for orange scoresheet players, 2.5 for white scoresheet players, and 22.9 for principals. Points awarded was your score if you were a principal, score times 5 if you were an orange sheet worker, and score times 5 plus 10 if you were a white sheet worker.

Results of the asset game:

In equilibrium, all stocks should end up in the hands of either Type I traders (state X) at a price of 275, or Type II traders (state Y) at a price of 225. In state X, Type I traders should score 2300 by buying 4 stocks, and everyone else should score 2150 by selling 2. In state Y, Type II traders should score 2500 by buying 4 stocks and everyone else should score 2050 by selling 2. We played 2 rounds of state X and 3 of state Y, so scores should have been 10,750 for Type 1, 11,800 for Type 2, and 10,450 for Type 3. Points awarded were your score divided by 200.

Results of the auction game:

The equilibrium is not very interesting since no one plays it, but you should bid up to your estimate minus 9 (on average the high bidder has a +9 overestimate). The winner should make a point (because it's a second-bid auction), and the average score is thus 1/20 per round, or 1/2 total for 10 rounds. Most people scored 0; I awarded 30 points for this, and if you lost points (all winners did) I subtracted that from 30.

Current Standings:

Jen Andriano421
Ryan Artis355
Jim Baron348
Xing Ni Chen308
Jackie Coffey377
Taylor Coutant387
Rosa Estepan357
Erica Gierke323
Alicia Gifford325
Erica Kewley402
Ian Leyden427
Mu Dan Liu350
Michelle Lombard401
James Martin395
Chris Murphy384
Kristen Nelson286
Andrew Polidore364
Jerry Schulman266
Brian Scordato340
David Stone382
Meng Kui Yan346


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Last modified April 10, 2005.