Welcome to the website for Learning and Experimental Economics Projects of Santa Cruz!
If you are interested in participating in LEEPS experiments and want to learn more, please visit the Learning & Experimental Economics Projects Online Recruitment System.
Introduction: LEEPS is located in the Economics Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in Room 416 of the Engineering II building. Among the world’s many centers for conducting laboratory experiments in economics with paid human subjects, LEEPS is notable for three things:
- Its early origins. LEEPS (Learning & Experimental Economics Projects) began operation in 1986 with the Double Auction Asset Market, the world’s second fully computerized market system. (PLATO at the University of Arizona and the University of Indiana was the first and now there are hundreds including major financial market systems.)
- Its modest size. Since 2004, the lab has occupied a dedicated space with 16 workstations. The annual output from LEEPS has increased from one or two series of experiments to four or five.
- Its emphasis on the learning processes used by human subjects. Always informed by optimization/equilibrium theory, the projects at LEEPS usually emphasize the underlying adjustment processes. For the rationale, see the manifesto at the bottom of the About page.
Founder: Dan Friedman
Director: Kristian Lopez Vargas
Please browse our current list of papers and code repository.
If you’d like to support our projects and research, please consider making a contribution to our lab. Thank you!