Teaching Privatization in the Soviet Union: An Experimental Economics Approach

David E.R. Gay

Public Goods

Non-computerized experiment

During the spring 1991 semester I developed a discovery approach, or experimental economics approach, to an issue of restructuring the Soviet economy. It was innovative because students discovered the advantages of stock markets and how properly designed incentives encourage better work. This was done in the context of a proposal being considered in the USSR to reform the Soviet economy.