Each session lasts 20 periods and begins with a random draw of a wage offer from a 20-card deck of wage offers. Each student searching for a job has the option of accepting the wage offer or rejecting it. If the offer is rejected, another random draw is made until all workers are employed or the end of the 20 periods is reached. Later sessions introduce search costs, unemployment benefits, recessions, and education.
Discussion can then focus on the impact of each variation on the search behavior of workers.
Three sessions and follow-up discussion can usually fit in one class period. Each student must make production and trading decisions over a sequence of periods in order to reach a predetermined consumption goal for both goods. During the first decision making period, trading is not allowed so whatever combination of the two goods is produced is also what is consumed. In the second period, students may decide to produce a different combination and then enter a market in which they can only make one trade with another person. In the third and fourth periods, students may again trade with others, but they may consider a variety of offers from other players before settling on a binding agreement.