The Bank Austria Mobile Experimental Laboratory

As part of a generous grant by Bank Austria, CERGE-EI established in the Spring of 2001a mobile experimental laboratory. The Laboratory -- to the best of our knowledge the first in the world -- can be used for conducting computerized experiments with up to 16 participants. Its mobility allows us, by bringing the lab to our participants rather than participants to the lab, to access subject pools that are otherwise difficult to reach.

The current configuration allows us to implement real-time interaction between participants, recording of their actions, processing of databases, etc. Software platforms used for experimental designs vary from specialized software packages to a wide range of programming languages including web-based script languages such as Perl or ASP. The latter allows us to use Web-browsers (Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator) as the experimental environment.

Technical Characteristics:

  • 14 workstations (Dell Latitude notebooks with Intel Celeron processor, 64Mb RAM, 5Gb HDD, Ethernet 10/100 network adapter and installed Windows NT Workstation 4.0 operation system including MS Internet Explorer 5.5);

  • 3 workstations (Dell Inspiron 1150 notebooks with Intel Celeron processor, 128Mb RAM, 20Gb HDD, Ethernet 10/100 network adapter and installed Windows XP Home Edition operation system including MS Internet Explorer 6.0);

  • 1 server (Dell Latitude notebook with Intel Pentium III processor, 256Mb RAM, 10Gb HDD, two Ethernet 10/100 network adapters and installed Windows NT Server 4.0 operation system including Apache Web-server);

  • Computers can be connected to the local network via HUB. In this case the second network adapter of the server notebook can be used to connect to another LAN as well as to the Internet.

Current Projects:

  • Incentive-compatible schemes to fight corruption (with Lubomir Lizal)
  • Test of multi-level game theory (with Kjell Hausken)
  • Coordination games with heterogeneous players (with Dmitry Ryvkin)
  • Fairness in risky environments (with Vitezslav Babicky)
  • Overconfidence in the lab - myth or reality? (with Pavlo Blavatsky)