Economics · Game Theory · Experimental

Auction
Lab

Live classroom auction simulations. Students bid in real time, private values are randomly assigned, and results are revealed by the instructor.

View Simulations Lecture Materials
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Auction Experiments

Each simulation runs directly in the browser — no server required. Students bid using any device. Results download as Excel.

First Price
Sealed Bid
2-Bidder
Students receive a random private value (0–100) and submit a sealed bid. 10 rounds per session. Instructor panel reveals results with scatter plot and OLS trend line.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
First Price
Sealed Bid
5-Bidder
Same as the 2-bidder version but with 5 competing bidders. Optimal bid line shows the 4/5 × value Nash equilibrium prediction.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
Second Price
Sealed Bid
2-Bidder
Vickrey-style auction with 2 bidders. The optimal bid line has slope 1 — reflecting the dominant strategy of bidding your true value.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
Second Price
Sealed Bid
5-Bidder
Vickrey-style auction with 5 bidders. Optimal bid line slope of 1 — truthful bidding is the dominant strategy regardless of the number of bidders.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
First Price
2-Bidder
$25 Entry Fee
First-price sealed bid with a $25 entry fee. Equilibrium bid = v/2 − 1/(8v) for v > 50, else 0.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
Second Price
2-Bidder
$25 Entry Fee
Second-price sealed bid with a $25 entry fee. Equilibrium bid = value for v > 50, else 0.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
First Price
2-Bidder
$50 Reserve
First-price sealed bid with a $50 reserve price. Equilibrium bid = v/2 + 1/(8v) for v > 50, else 0.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
Second Price
2-Bidder
$50 Reserve
Second-price sealed bid with a $50 reserve price. Equilibrium bid = value for v > 50, else 0.
Live 10 Rounds Excel Export Chart
Common Value
Winner's
Curse
All bidders receive noisy signals of a common value. Explore overbidding and the winner's curse.
Coming Soon

Slides & Notes

Upload lecture slides and notes to the slides/ and notes/ folders in the repository, then update the links below.

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Lecture Slides
slides/ folder
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Lecture Notes
notes/ folder