ICES Experimental Economics Brown Bag Lecture
Can Sellers Discover the Optimal Dynamic Mechanism? An Experiment
Thursday, December 1, 2022 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EST
Vernon Smith Hall (formerly Metropolitan Building), Room 5075
The Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science (ICES) presents an ICES Brown Bag Lecture featuring:
George Mason University
Can Sellers Discover the Optimal Dynamic Mechanism? An Experiment
Abstract
As a practical matter, one would only implement the (Mirrokni et al., 2020) approach of optimal non-clairvoyant dynamic mechanism (NC) when it is likely to outperform the Myersonial approach (Myerson, 1981) of repeated static mechanism (RS). Revenue comparisons between the two mechanisms depend on the specific conditions. We propose an experiment design to test whether human sellers can discover the optimal dynamic mechanism for each scenario through learning by doing when trading with human buyers. Results from experiments show that human sellers choose the optimal mechanism more in the later stage after gaining experience in the environment. While the experimental revenue of sellers does not improve as buyers quit more in the later stage.
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