Labour Economics Lab — Search, Matching, Minimum Wage Effects
Stand in the shoes of a Costarian Ministry of Labour strategy team.
About this simulation
A 3-round HS microeconomics simulation: discover the demand curve in a heatwave, then live through a binding €1 price ceiling and the unintended consequences (queues, rationing, black market, bundling). 360° pilot: a copy of 1200 with a live view of the stand (queue, price board, sold-out sign, reseller) driven by the model.
What participants learn
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Derive the profit-maximising price from a demand schedule under a capacity limit, and distinguish it from the price at which the stand sells out
- Explain why a price ceiling set below the market-clearing price creates a shortage, and measure that shortage from the demand schedule
- Compare non-price rationing rules such as waiting, quantity limits, favouritism and quality reduction by who bears the cost each one creates
- Analyze the workarounds that appear when the legal price is below what buyers will pay, by asking who collects the difference
- Evaluate a price ceiling as public policy, separating the council's goal from the tool it chose
Who it is for
An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.
How a session runs
- The instructor creates a session from the Eureka dashboard and invites the participants.
- Participants play 3 rounds. In each one they submit their decisions and the simulation calculates the results. The first round opens with: Free pricing in a heatwave.
- The simulation can be run in English, Español.
- The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.