Economics Contest 4: Make Me Happy – 30 Hive Power to be won

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the fourth Economics Contest for 2023. This month is the Make Me Happy Contest. The Make Me Happy Contest might be familiar to some of you. It has been part of the two previous Challenge Series. See, Challenge Series 2021 and 2022 to get a better idea of how the challenge version of the contest was played.

Welcome to the Make Me Happy Contest

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How to Play?

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Utility is one of the fundamental concepts in economics. It is an essential determinant of behaviour and is driver of demand. In this contest, participants are required to maximise the utility of one of the characters described in this question. Participants will be given a timeframe of 7 days (168 hours) to allocate to activities that yield utility to their selected character. These activities are as follows:

• Working
• Sleeping
• Eating out
• Watching TV
• Reading a book
• Painting
• Going to the pub
• Social media
• Gardening
• Exercising
• Playing sport
• Camping
• Playing video games

The character’s utility will be calculated using a formula described later in the question.

All entries must be made in the comments section of this post.

Each account is only permitted one entry.

Objectives of the contest

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The objective of the contest is to obtain the highest utility for your selected character using the activities described within the 7-day (168 hours) timeframe. If two or more participants obtain the exact same utility for their characters, the participant who entered first wins.

Game Assumptions

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• Character’s utility is determined by a utility function, parameters and the participant’s choice of activities for their character.
• Characters are only allowed to spend money they have earned during the 168 hours of the game (i.e. characters do not bring money into the game).
• Participants are not allowed to spend more than their character earns in that week.
• Participants can only allocate a maximum of 60 hours of work to their character.
• Participants cannot exceed the 168 hour limit for their character but they may choose to leave some time unallocated.
• All characters require at least a minimum income stream to pay for their basic expenditure (see Table 1 for costs of basic expenditure).
• Participants can select any character even if another participant has already selected that character (e.g., we could have 4 players using Emmanuel).
• Time can only by allocated in whole hours.
• Participants must allocate at least 42 hours (6 hours a day) of sleep to their character.
• Travelling between locations and mundane daily activities not described in this contest are not assumed to consume any time.

What information is provided?

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• Characters names and characteristics are provided.
• The utility function applied to the characters is provided.
• All costs for each character’s activities are provided (i.e. costs for activities and a basic expense that needs to be covered).
• Rates of diminishing marginal utility are provided.
• Exact utility values (utils) are not provided for each activity. Instead, maximum and minimum values are provided. A model will be used to determine the utility values using a uniform distribution.

Utility Function

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The utility function to be applied to all characters’ activities is expressed in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Utility Function

How are the results of the game determined?

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A Microsoft Excel Model is used to determine the exact utility values for each activity for each character. These utility values will be applied to the formulae described in the previous section to determine the total utility for each participant's character. Utility will be determined based on each participant’s allocation of time to his or her character. The results post will contain a video of the generation of all of the above. The winner will be announced in both the video and written post.

Contest Prizes

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The account with the winning entry will receive 30 Hive Power and the first 12 entries will be given upvotes. If two or more participants are tied, the first participant to enter wins. If there are no winners, the 30 Hive Power is rolled over to next month’s contest.

Let the contest begin

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Participants can choose between 5 hypothetical characters. These characters are as follows:

• Randall
• Sophia
• Gemima
• Emmanuel
• Isaac

Below are some statements from these characters so that you can get to know them better.

Activities have costs. These costs vary for different characters as they visit different places to conduct their activities. These costs can be as low as zero for activities such as sleeping and reading a book. The work activity is the only activity that can earn a character money. At some point, time needs to be dedicated to work, as money is required to at least cover a character’s basic expenses. Money is also needed for most activities. Table 1 contains the costs of activities per hour for each character.

Table 1: Costs of activities (Hourly values)

Each activity yields utility to the characters. Table 2 contains the minimum and maximum utility each activity provides each character per hour before diminishing marginal utility is considered.

Table 2: Utility obtained from activities

Activities generally produce diminishing marginal utility. It varies depending on the activity and the character. Table 3 contains the powers used to diminish utility in the function described in Figure 1.

Table 3: Power used to diminish utility

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Entry format

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For this contest, I expect to see entries made in the following format:

Name of Character:
Number of hours working:
Number of hours sleeping:
Number of hours eating out:
Number of hours watching TV:
Number of hours reading a book:
Number of hours painting:
Number of hours going to the pub:
Number of hours on social media:
Number of hours gardening:
Number of hours exercising:
Number of hours playing sport:
Number of hours camping:
Number of hours playing video games:

Note: It is not necessary to allocate time to all activities.

Example of entry

Name of Character: Sophia
Number of hours working: 52
Number of hours sleeping: 42
Number of hours eating out: 7
Number of hours watching TV: 4
Number of hours reading a book: 0
Number of hours painting: 0
Number of hours going to the pub: 7
Number of hours on social media: 4
Number of hours gardening: 0
Number of hours exercising: 12
Number of hours playing sport: 12
Number of hours camping: 0
Number of hours playing video games: 28

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The closing date and time for this contest is 6PM coordinated universal time (UTC) 01/05/2023. Responses after this time will not be accepted. The answers will be provided in the results post along with the video containing the generation of utility values for each activity for each character and the total utility obtained for each participant’s character.

I hope everyone has fun and enjoys the fourth contest of this year. I look forward to your participation next month.

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More posts

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