The countries all have the same login name, but have a unique

password.

The access page of the SIER game. This can be found at www.siergame.nl/en (choose login)

Navigation through the game’s pages is done through tabbed pages.

The game version determines which

pages are available.

The status bar provides succinct information for the

game leader and the students.

After login, you may explore several aspects of the starting position: welfare components...

...the policies pursued in one’s own country and in all other countries...

...economic data...

...and for instance government accounts.

To play the game, go to the ‘Policy’ tab.

The aim of the game is to add welvare and become the

country in the world with the highest welfare. The students

are governments of the countries and have economic policy tools at their disposal

that they may use to attempt to maximise welfare. The may,

among other, change tax rates, the level over

government consumption and the number of civil servants.

This is where you enter your desired policy

changes

To prevent policy tools from being used inappropriately, you have to obey certain boundaries. This is why the size of policy

interventions in each game round is subject to boundaries.

If your team is ready entering your policy

interventions, you submit them.

Before the economic consequences of the policy mix can be calculated, all countries must submit their policy intentions. This follows from the interdependency between the economies of the

countries. In some versions of the game, these interdependencies only take the form of trade flows, but bilateral capital flows are also possible (depending ojn the game version). As a consequence, the economy of

a country is also influenced by policies in the other countries.

Countries 1, 3 and 4 have submitted

their policies, country 2 has yet

to submit.

If all countries have submitted their policies (or if the game leader started a new game period

manually), the consequences of the economic policies are calculated.All players are informed

when the data for the new period is available via a

message in the status bar.

You may study the economic consequences of your policies. Country 3 has the highest welfare (the citizens of country 3 have the highest welvare and

have more than 100.00 welfare points).

A new game period has begun. The data of previous game rounds

remain accessible.

You have the possibility to view all available data in 1 file, that can

subsequently be easily printed or saved.

You may access the historical overviews of all countries in the world.

By clicking the ‘History’ tab, historical overviews

may be accessed

There is a possibility to print the historical data

or save it.

This graph shows which welfare components have contributed to an

increase or a fall in welfare. Country 4 is not performing well: welfare has

decline in round 1.

You may view several graphs for all countries, using the ‘Graph’

tab

Country 3 did raise welfare.Note: players may view the tables and graphs of all countries. This enables

them to learn from the policy mixes of the other countries.

The graphs may be viewed together in one file to facilitate

printing.

You may access a graph that depicts aggregate supply and demand in the product market. This graph can be used to analyse the main economic developments in their

country.

In conjunction with the product market graph, an expert system is available that provides you with the main explanations for the shifts in the supply and

demand lines.

After analysing the economic situation in their own country (as well as eyeing other countries), the graphs and the historical context, you are ready to formulate their

next period’s policy mix.This closes the policy circle. In this manner,

up to a maximum of 24 rounds may be played.