Objectives

The aim of the course is to allow students to get actively involved in the planning and implementation of experimental studies.
By the end of the course students will be expected to have acquired the basic technical and organizational competences for designing and conducting experimental studies in the fields of economics and management.

Prerequisites

Experimental economics (121168): not mandatory but highly recommended.

Contents

• Designing and conducting an experiment: some guidelines.
• Programming the software for an experiment with the zTree platform: 
• Introduction to the platform.
• Some simple programs for individual choices.
• Strategic interaction and repeated choices: simultaneous and sequential choices.
• Example of simple auction mechanisms

Teaching Methods

The course will be highly interactive. 
Students will always work in the computer room. 
The basics of programming will be taught by using well-known simple experiments as examples.

Verification of learning

Student will be asked to design an experiment, programming the software and proposing a scheme for the analysis of the results. The details of the project must be presented and discussed in a written report. 

The final assessment will be based on the following criteria: 

• quality of the research questions. 
• complexity, effectiveness and efficiency of the software 
• quality of the report.

Texts

• Fischbacher, U. (2007)"zTree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments," Experimental Economics,10(2):171-178. + Tutorial + Reference Manual
• Lecture notes.
• Further readings: the list will provided during the course.