The Educational Relevance of Experimental Economics : A Web Application for Learning Entrepreneurship in High Schools, Universities and Workplaces

In this paper, we present a web-based software model in which the user manages a virtual enterprise. By using the software, the user experiences a number of basic economic principles such as the financial leverage, the effect of depreciation and the key role of the equity base in a framework characterized by risk and uncertainty. The software was initially used in an undergraduate class. Students recognized the usefulness of this tool in experiencing the theoretical principles learned during lectures. We then asked different subject pools, i.e., high school students and entrepreneurs, to manage the same Graphical User Interface. A comparative analysis of the results obtained in the three pools demonstrates that our software is an effective learning tool