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Teaching Nash Equilibrium and Dominance: A Classroom Experiment on the Beauty Contest

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  • Virtudes Alba-Fernández
  • Pablo Brañas-Garza
  • Francisca Jiménez-Jiménez
  • Javier Rodero-Cosano

Abstract

The aim of this investigation is to show how the use of classroom experiments may be a good pedagogical tool to teach the Nash equilibrium (NE) concept. For our purposes, the basic game is a repeated version of the Beauty Contest Game (BCG), a simple guessing game in which repetition lets students react to other players’ choices and converge iteratively to the equilibrium solution. We perform this experiment with undergraduate students with no previous training in game theory. After four rounds, we observe a clear decreasing tendency in the average submitted number in all groups. Thus, our findings prove that by playing a repeated BCG, students quickly learn how to reach the NE solution.

Suggested Citation

  • Virtudes Alba-Fernández & Pablo Brañas-Garza & Francisca Jiménez-Jiménez & Javier Rodero-Cosano, 2004. "Teaching Nash Equilibrium and Dominance: A Classroom Experiment on the Beauty Contest," IESA Working Papers Series 0413, Institute for Social Syudies of Andalusia - Higher Council for Scientific Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:esa:iesawp:0413
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    1. Duffy, John & Nagel, Rosemarie, 1997. "On the Robustness of Behaviour in Experimental "Beauty Contest" Games," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(445), pages 1684-1700, November.
    2. Shinichi Hirota & Shyam Sunder, 2002. "Stock Market as a 'Beauty Contest': Investor Beliefs and Price Bubbles sans Dividend Anchors," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm2, Yale School of Management.
    3. Brit Grosskopf & Rosemarie Nagel, 2007. "Rational reasoning or adaptive behavior? Evidence from two-person beauty contest games," Economics Working Papers 1068, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
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    Cited by:

    1. Virtudes Alba Fernández & Pablo Brañas-Garza & Francisca Jiménez Jiménez & Javier Rodero Cosano, 2004. "Communication, coordination and competition in the beauty contest game: Eleven classroom experiments," ThE Papers 04/-1, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    2. Metin TETİK, 2020. "Investigating factors affecting cooperative and non-cooperative behavior: An experimental game in the classroom," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(2(623), S), pages 205-214, Summer.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Classroom Experiments; Beauty Contest Game; Teaching; Nash Equilibrium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate
    • C99 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Other
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

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