MRI: Acquisition of Equipment to Upgrade the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory

该奖项提供资金升级和扩展匹兹堡实验经济学实验室（PEEL）使用的服务器和计算机工作站，该实验室位于匹兹堡大学主校区，由经济系管理。PEEL现有的设备是由1997年授予的NSF主要资源仪器补助金（NSF no. 1）提供的资金购买的。9724620. 从那时起，没有发生重大升级；该实验室需要新设备来替换速度慢或无法操作的计算机和服务器，这些计算机和服务器远远超出了预期的使用寿命。最近，来自13所不同大学的21名教师、5名研究生和2名博士后将PEEL用于实验经济学研究。这项研究的大部分是由NSF和其他外部资助资助的，这些资助为受试者提供资金，但不包括硬件。因此，这项拨款将补充其他一些国家科学基金会资助的项目。一些已经或将在实验室探索的研究课题包括重复博弈中的合作、信任和互惠、地位和相关问题、学习、拍卖、讨价还价、协调问题中的均衡选择、性别在竞争中的作用、货币作为交换媒介的出现和资产定价的实验分析。实验方法通常是收集数据以检验经济理论或探索有前景的新假设的唯一手段。这笔资金将使PEEL的PC工作站数量从30台增加到40台，并提供更快的服务器。这些改进将扩大PEEL研究人员可以探索的实验环境，因为更多的受试者将被允许，实时处理的增加将促进某些实验，如涉及资产定价的实验。这次升级还将带来教育方面的好处，因为它将放宽在PEEL教授的课程的入学上限。除了研究和课程使用外，实验室也是研究生的重要训练基地。匹兹堡大学承诺提供实验室空间和年度运营预算，包括实验室管理员和研究生研究助理的工资。此外，匹兹堡大学（University of Pittsburgh）在对实验经济学有研究兴趣的教师身上投入了大量资金。匹兹堡实验实验室与邻近的卡内基梅隆大学强大的行为/实验教师相结合，是当今世界上致力于实验研究的最繁忙的实验室之一。PEEL的计算机和服务器急需升级，这将确保PEEL在未来的许多年里仍然是一个进行实验经济学研究的最先进的计算机实验室。

This award provides funds to upgrade and expand both the servers and computer workstations used in the Pittsburgh Experimental Economics Laboratory (PEEL) which is housed on the University of Pittsburgh main campus and administered by the Department of Economics. PEEL's existing equipment was purchased with funds provided by a prior NSF grant Major Resource Instrumentation Grant awarded in 1997, NSF no. 9724620. Since that time, no major upgrades have occurred; the laboratory is in need of new equipment to replace the slow or inoperable computers and servers that are well beyond their expected lifetimes. PEEL has recently been used for experimental economics research by 21 faculty, 5 graduate students and 2 post-docs from 13 different universities. Much of this research is supported by NSF and other external grants that provide funds for subject payments, but not for hardware. Thus, the awards from this grant will complement a number of other NSF funded projects. Some of the research topics that have been or will be explored in the laboratory include experimental analyses of cooperation in repeated games, trust and reciprocity, status and relative concerns, learning, auctions, bargaining, equilibrium selection in coordination problems, the role of gender in competition, the emergence of money as a medium of exchange and asset pricing. Experimental methods often provide the only means of collecting data to test economic theories or to explore promising new hypotheses.The funds from this award will increase the number of PEEL's PC workstations from 30 to 40 and provide for faster servers. These improvements will enlarge the set of experimental environments that can be explored by PEEL researchers, as larger subject populations will be permitted and the increase in real-time processing will facilitate certain experiments such as those involving asset pricing. The upgrade will also have an educational benefit as it will ease enrollment caps on courses taught in PEEL. In addition to research and course use, the laboratory is an important training ground for graduate students. The University of Pittsburgh has provided a commitment of laboratory space and an annual operating budget that covers the salary of a laboratory administrator and graduate student research assistant. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh has invested heavily in faculty with research interests in experimental economics. In combination with the strong behavioral/experimental faculty at neighboring Carnegie Mellon University, the Pittsburgh experimental laboratory is one of the busiest laboratories devoted to experimental research in the world today. The much-needed upgrade of PEEL's computers and servers will ensure that PEEL remains a state-of-the-art computer laboratory for conducting experimental economics research for many years to come.