10 minutes overview to ztree Outline of Presentation

10 minutes overview to z-tree

Outline of Presentation What is z-tree? What can it do? How does it work? When to use? Alternatives? A quick demo

An Introduction to Z-Tree • Z-Tree is a free program used for conducting experiments. • It has its own programming language (similar to C) • Software Tutorial and Reference Manual available at http: //www. iew. unizh. ch/ztree/index. php • Also check out the Course Website.

Z-Tree Software Features of Z-Tree include: § communication between the computers; § increased participation; § data saving; § less mistakes; § time management; § real-time info dissemination & analysis; § compute statistics (eg: profit);

How does it work? Subject’s inputs Experimentor PC Ztree. exe Subject PCs Zleaf. exe Auction. ztt Zleaf. exe Experimental data Hard drive or server Zleaf. exe Instructions, Parameters, results, Zleaf. exe

Quick notes… Ability to simulate z-tree and multiple copies of z-leaf on your laptop Ability to change the default language

Alternatives to Z-tree Paper and Pen MS Excel (shared workbook feature) MS Access

How easy is it to program in ztree? Z-tree website claims: “A public good experiment, for instance, can be programmed within an hour, a double auction within a day. ”

When to use z-tree Is the experiment sufficiently complicated (can “paper and pen” work? ) MS Excel (robustness issue) Suggestion – use default templates with some “paper and pen” Dealing with “common knowledge” and “random choices”

Z-tree demo