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

该奖项提供资金，以升级和扩大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现有的设备是用1997年授予的NSF主要资源仪器赠款（NSF编号9724620）提供的资金购买的。自那时以来，没有发生重大升级;实验室需要新设备来取代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过了预期的使用寿命。 PEEL最近被来自13所不同大学的21名教师，5名研究生和2名博士后用于实验经济学研究。这项研究的大部分是由NSF和其他外部赠款支持的，这些赠款为受试者支付提供资金，但不用于硬件。 因此，这笔赠款的奖励将补充一些其他NSF资助的项目。 一些已经或将在实验室探索的研究课题包括在重复的游戏，信任和互惠，地位和相对的关注，学习，拍卖，讨价还价，在协调问题的均衡选择，性别在竞争中的作用，货币的出现作为交换和资产定价的媒介合作的实验分析。实验方法通常是收集数据以检验经济理论或探索有希望的新假设的唯一手段。该奖项的资金将使PEEL的PC工作站数量从30个增加到40个，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，因为将允许更大的受试者群体，并且实时处理的增加将促进某些实验，例如涉及资产定价的实验。升级也将有一个教育的好处，因为它将减轻招生上限的课程在PEEL教授。除了研究和课程使用，实验室是研究生的重要训练场。匹兹堡大学承诺提供实验室空间和年度业务预算，其中包括实验室管理员和研究生研究助理的工资。 此外，匹兹堡大学在实验经济学研究领域投入了大量资金。 与邻近的卡内基梅隆大学强大的行为/实验教师相结合，匹兹堡实验实验室是当今世界上最繁忙的实验室之一。PEEL的计算机和服务器的急需升级将确保PEEL仍然是一个国家的最先进的计算机实验室进行实验经济学研究多年来。

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.