July 2017

Economic Party Games is a board game played with phones. In most turns you commit to an action on your phone, then place it face down on the table. When everyone is ready, reveal your choices. You will need some paper or a spreadsheet(!) to keep score.

Below six different kinds of games are described which you can play with your family or friends but you are very much encouraged to remix and expand. The games are from the world of experimental/behavioral economics and explore ideas of cooperation and competition. Enjoy.

James Porter

Summary

Low Bid Wins

Everyone places a bid. The lowest wins. Everyone else gets nothing.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people have been arrested. If they cooperate the police will not have enough evidence to convict. If one betrays the other then the betrayer goes free, but the other is convicted. If both betray each other then both are convicted. Do you cooperate?

Commons

Each player chooses how much of a common resource to use (think of farmers using common land). If everybody uses the maximum nobody gets anything (as the resource is depleted). If everyone chooses a moderate amount the best outcome for society is achieved. But if one person exploits the resource then they benefit.

Ultimatum

How to split the pie? 10 points are on offer. One player chooses how much to offer the other player. The other player can accept, in which case the points are split, or reject, in which case nobody gets anything.

El Farol Bar

There is popular bar in Santa Fe. Everyone would rather to go there than stay at home as long as it isn't too crowded. But if it is crowded (if a majority of people go) then it would have been better to stay at home.

Chicken

Two cars drive towards each other. Do you continue? If both players continue they get a very negative outcome. If one player backs down they pay a small cost in reputation and the other gains a small amount. If both players back down they both pay a small cost.

How to Play

Low Bid Wins

This is the simplest game. Everyone places a bid using Offer/Claim/Bid. The lowest bid wins that number of points. If more than one bid is join lowest nobody gets anything. Repeat 3 times. The results might approximate to what economists call perfect competition.

Prisoner's Dilemma

Two people have been arrested. If they cooperate the police will not have enough evidence to convict. If one betrays the other then the betrayer goes free, but the other is convicted. If both betray each other then both are convicted. Do you cooperate or betray? Use the App to decide. For this game each player should play every other player once. You might want to create a standard league points grid to record scores.

Points

Commons

Each player chooses how much of a common resource to use (think of farmers using common land). If everybody uses the maxiumum nobody gets anything (as the resource is depleted). If everyone chooses a moderate amount the best outcome for society is achieved. But if one person exploits the resource then they benefit.

Points

Points are based on two factors. The total consumption (the total of all individual decisions) determines how big the 'pie' is. Add together all the players' claims and divide by the total number of players (rounding up if necessary). The total pie size is now based off:

But multiplied by the total number of players. Now split this total among the players in proportion to their claim. So for each player take the total available (the base score times the total number of players) and multiply this by their claim, then divide by the total claim. (If that seems complicated, don't worry this is by the far the most complex scoring of any of the games described here.)

So for example if John and Anna are playing. John claims 7 and Anna 5. The total is 12. 12 / 2 players = 6, so we have a total of 7 × 2 = 14 available. John gets 14 × 7 / 12 = 9 Anna gets 14 * 5 / 12 = 6.

Ultimatum

How to split the pie? 10 points are on offer. One player chooses how much to offer the other player. The other player can accept, in which case the points are split, or reject, in which case nobody gets anything. Each player should player each other player twice once as proposer, once as responder. You should probably order this somewhat randomly.

Alternatively play e.g. 10 games, randomly choosing a proposer and responder.

You don't really need to use the App for this (as it is sequential) but you might want to try a version where pairs play silently (only sharing scores at the end) and see if that changes how your family and friends play!

Points

A split is proposed by the first player

The second player can either accept this or reject (everyone gets 0)

El Farol Bar

There is popular bar in Santa Fe. Everyone would rather to go there than stay at home as long as it isn't too crowded. But if it is crowded (if a majority of people go) then it would have been better to stay at home. Use Hawk (go to bar) or Dove (stay at home). Play 5 rounds with everyone.

Points

Chicken

Two cars drive towards each other. Do you continue? If both players continue they get a very negative outcome. If one player backs down they pay a small cost in reputation and the other gains a small amount. If both players back down they both pay a small cost. Each player should play each other once. Use Hawk (for continue) and Dove (to back down). This kind of game has been used to think about the outcomes of nuclear war.

Points