Simulations in Managerial and Business Economics

Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM) is an online futures market where contract payoffs are based on real-world events such as political outcomes (including the US Presidential election), companies' earnings per share (EPS), and stock price returns. It is run as a non-profit educational and research project by faculty at University of Iowa, Henry B. Tippie College of Business. Most of the markets use real money, although there is a free practice market. The site includes instructor resources, research papers based on their experience and a trader's manual.

A set of configurable, graphically appealing, online interactive games that work across laptops, iOS (Apple) and Android devices. Instructors can customise the games, or use default settings, and students join by entering a class code. The instructor gets a graphical analysis of outcomes immediately at the end of the session, for use in class discussion. The site has course guides that suggest how to sequence the games in different Economics courses, and each game has references to relevant papers. The site's apps can also be used to administer individual survey or assessment questions online.

IndustryMasters is a server-based, real-time business simulation. In this simulation/business game, players invest in a wide variety of businesses with virtual capital; they then have to design pricing, marketing, HR, sustainability and other strategies to generate profits, shareholder value and grow their share price, so practice can be extended. Anyone can join and play for free, but or academics and corporate education programs, site licences are available, with specially customised private worlds, where macroeconomic scenarios can be developed and played out depending on specific needs. Main economic principles built into the model include: Industry Competition, Market Crowding and Real Life Business Dynamics; Supply and Demand, Price Mechanism and Perfect Market modelling; Product Life Cycle, Economies of Scale and Scope; Corporate and Business Unit Strategy; Porter's 5 Forces and Generic Strategies; Benchmarking concepts Although the public game is a US dollar based game, UK sterling accounting versions are available on request.

Beat The Market Online contains simulation games and exercises designed to teach Principles or Introductory level Microeconomics as well as Managerial Economics. The goal is to maximize profits in one or more of the market structures including Perfect Competition, Monopoly, Monopolistic Competition or Oligopoly. Accompanying exercises cover a range of topics including market equilibrium, demand, elasticity, production, costs, and revenue maximization. The simulation games and exercises are all automatically graded and provided to the Instructor online with progress reports. An online consultant helps guide students. Students may compete against each other or computer managed firms as individuals or in teams. The simulation manages the entire process for the Instructor. Learning levels enables the Instructor to teach either principles or introductory economics by limiting the number of decisions to four or less. Data from the simulation, both cross sectional and time series, can be exported to Excel.