Reuters, "Nobel-Winning Economist Vernon L. Smith Lectures to Inner-City High School Students at the Nicholas Academic Centers"

The Chapman University Professor, Known as the Father of “Experimental Economics,” Demonstrates How Both Buyers and Sellers Benefit from Market Transactions

Chapman University Nobel Laureate Vernon L. Smith, and his colleague, Bart Wilson, brought their unorthodox teaching methods to the students, parents and staff of the Nicholas Academic Centers in Santa Ana, CA., on Saturday (Nov. 5), conducting “double auction” experiments in which students learned how both buyers and sellers, who know nothing of each other’s interests, can benefit from market transactions.

The two professors from Chapman’s Economic Science Institute made their second appearance as part of the Nicholas Academic Centers’ 2011-12 “Visiting Scholar Series” in partnership with Chapman University. Drs. Smith and Wilson delivered their first lecture in the series in January 2011 at the Center in downtown Santa Ana, CA.

Dr. Smith said he got the idea for “Experimental Economics” as a newly minted Harvard PhD teaching his first class at Purdue University. “I realized I didn’t know anything about the connection between the pretty pictures in the text books and how the real world worked,” Dr. Smith told the gathering. “So I decided to do an experiment.” He went on to became known as the father of “Experimental Economics” and in 2002 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in using laboratory experiments to research why markets and other exchange systems work the way they do.