How Do You Like Them Apples? Simple Exercise in Supply and Demand Transformed Kresge Atrium into Virtual Marketplace

Students in HSPH Professor David Hemenway’s Economic Analysis class (HPM206) got a hands-on lesson in supply and demand on September 8, when the Kresge Atrium was transformed into a fictional apple marketplace. The course is designed to bring students to an intermediate-level understanding of microeconomic theory, with applications to public health.

A single rope across the Atrium divided the class of 130 students into buyers and sellers. Each buyer was assigned different maximum prices they could pay for a bushel of apples, while each seller was given different minimum prices for which they could sell. When Hemenway declared the marketplace open, a frenzy ensued in which buyers and sellers frantically tried to make sales that were as advantageous to them as possible. When they shook hands on an agreement, the sale was reported to HSPH Research Associate Deborah Azrael, who tracked the average price of a bushel of apples. Over the course of five rounds, Hemenway changed the circumstances governing the marketplace, enabling students to experience the effects of regulation on the marketplace.

Said student Julie Bryar, “I was a buyer of apples. Overall, my gains from trade were $75 from the purchase of three bushels in five rounds. My most successful round was when the ‘government’ set a maximum price that sellers could charge, and I increased my gains by $30. Conversely, when there was a minimum price set by the government, I failed to buy any bushels because I did not have enough funds to meet the restriction.”
She added, “The most important point I learned from the lively interactions, besides the affirmation that Wall Street is not my calling, was that both sellers and buyers walked away more satisfied in a free market, without outside interference.”

-Text and photo by Mary Vriniotis.