One major theme in Economics 16/Civil Engineering 36 is the influence of transportation on trade and economic growth. The course makes use of a simulation program to give students an interactive experience with the relationship between transportation technology, trade, and growth. In the simulation, students play the role of cities on an undeveloped continent. Each city generates income, which can be used to develop the city's ability to produce each of six different goods, or to build three types of transportation links between the cities on the map, which can be used to trade the different goods. As the simulation progresses, each city develops trade partners which have specialized in different goods, and builds a transportation network to support its trade. The simulation can also include an optional national government which collects taxes and can build transportation links and improvements.
The simulation program runs over the World Wide Web, using Web browsers to interact with the simulation engine. Playing the simulation requires three browser windows:
The map drawing page requires WebTermX or another software package that can display the results of a X process inside a browser window.
Open each of the three pages, using the links above. They
will come up in three separate windows. Use the button bar
at the bottom of your screen to switch between them. (Note:
Actually playing the simulation requires at least eight
participants plus an instructor to operate the simulation
engine. These instructions describe the general operation of
the simulation to an observer; the instructor will provide
additional information for actual participants at the time
the simulation is run.)
Start by looking at the map page. Locate your city, and observe
the existing transportation network. The color of each hex
on the map indicates the terrain there: blue is water,
white is open terrain, yellow is hills, and brown is
mountains. It is more expensive to build transportation
links through hills and mountains, and roads and railroads
cannot be built into water hexes. Links between the hexes
are indicated by colored lines between the centers of the
hexes. Blue links represent navigable rivers; green links
represent non-navigable rivers. As the simulation develops,
roads, canals, and railroads will be built: red links are
roads, purple links are canals, and black links are railroads.
Below the map is a table showing the cost of transportation
between each pair of cities on the map. The higher the cost,
the more likely it is that trade between the two cities is
not economically feasible. Building transportation links
will lower the transportation costs and increase trade.
This page has a link to a table showing the costs of transporting
goods over each type of link.
Switch to the build page. This page contains two forms:
the one on the left is used to build transportation links,
and the one on the right is used to improve production
facilities in your city. To build a link, fill in the X,Y
coordinates of the square in which you wish to build the
link, the type of link you want (road, canal, or rail), and
the direction you want the link to run. To build a production
facility, fill in the type of good you want the facility to
produce. In either case, then click the appropriate
Submit button: if you have filled in everything correctly,
and have enough money to afford what you want, the build
will take place. You can click the back button on your
browser to return to the build forms to do more builds
(until you use up your funds) and you can refresh the map
page to see the results of your construction. This page
contains a link to tables showing the costs of each type
of transportation link and production facility.
Now look at the results page. After each city has finished
building for the turn, the instructor will calculate the
prices, output, and trade patterns for that turn. The
first table on the results page shows the status of each
city; its population and last turn's growth, its income
that turn and its current wealth, its location, and its
technology for producing each of the six goods. (In
simulations using the optional government player, there
will first be a one-line table showing the government's
tax rate, income, and wealth.) The second
table shows the transportation costs at the end of the
turn (or, equivalently, at the start of the next turn.)
The last six tables show the trade of each of the six
goods; each city's technology level for that good, its
price in that city, the amount of it consumed in that
city, and the amount it purchased from each city on the
map (including itself). The table also shows how much of each
good the city produced by adding up that city's column
in the trade table for each good.
For more information, follow these links:
The Eco 16/CER 36 transportation simulation was designed
and written by Stephen Schmidt. Eco 16/CER 36 was jointly
developed and taught with Andrew Wolfe. Financial support
from Union College's Mellon Grant is gratefully acknowledged.