Goal. Contrast a sealed second-price auction with the open £5 auction from the first class and set up the question of truthful bidding.
Ask the class to repeat the £5 auction, but this time the highest bid wins and pays the amount of the second bid. Run it sealed: get everyone to write their bid on a piece of paper and reveal at the end.
Work through the Auctions chapter.
Discussion Point: After the definition of an auction, ask what the rules are for the sealed auction we just played.
Discussion Point: After two theorems ask why I chose the auction I did?
The activity above is written up as a marked exam question: Question 1 (the in-class activity) on the Auctions page, with a full worked solution. Closing the loop here is the step that helps students who find exams hard: work through that question together, or set it as the immediate follow-up, so they see the game they just played turned into a full-mark answer.
General email templates to send before and after this class. Fill in the bracketed placeholders before sending.
Hi all,
A reminder that our next Game Theory class covers Auctions.
All of the course materials, including the relevant chapter, are available
at https://vknight.org/gt/. It is worth skimming the chapter beforehand.
See you in class,
Vince
Dear all,
Thanks for your work in today's class on Auctions.
A recording is available here [RECORDING LINK] and on Learning Central.
All class resources are available at https://vknight.org/gt/.
Thanks,
Vince