Hello everyone

I am Jörg Oechssler, Professor at the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and I conduct experimental economic research as part of my job. I am generally interested in auction theory and have been approached by W3F researchers some time ago to investigate the exotic candle auction format that is employed by Polkadot to allocate parachain slots. Not much has been done in academia so far to measure this novel approach and how well the mechanism performs. We spent some time preparing a rigorous design to mimic the environment that the auctions take place, while keeping mechanisms and influences controllable.

Our method of choice is to analyze the auction in a laboratory experiment with students from the university. It is common practice in the field of experimental economics to test theories/models with students and pay them to participate.

With this proposal, I request 5720 EUR (DOT rate to be calculated based on 7 day EMA rate: https://polkadot.subscan.io/tools/charts?type=price)) to pay those participants. 100% of the funds requested are to pay the students (and to cover some exchange fees). Neither I, nor my team members receive any compensation from this proposal. All remaining funds will be send back to Treasury after the study ends. We are ready to start the experiment as soon as funds arrive. The experimental software is already programmed and we ran a pilot successfully.

The goal of this study is to publish it in a peer-reviewed journal.

Please find much more details on the background, design, and budget --> here <--

Team Members:

• Jörg Oechssler (University of Heidelberg) - Beneficiary of the Proposal
• Jonas Gehrlein (Web3 Foundation)
• Samuel Haefner (University of St.Gallen, formerly Web3 Foundation)
• Florian Franzen (Web3 Foundation)