To work or not to work ... that is the question: A classroom experiment on how the labour market operates

This paper presents a simple classroom experiment that helps students make economic decisions about participation in the labour market. The students are designated as workers and are given information about their skill endowments, marginal productivities and opportunity costs. The lecturer, who is the designated sole employer in this experiment, offers appropriate wage rates to the workers, knowing the workersÕ marginal productivities and the price at which output can be sold. The experiment is run for a number of periods, each period representing different conditions in the labour market, e.g., a minimum wage law is mandated by the government. During each period, the students (workers) must decide whether or not to offer their labour services based on the information they have at hand.