Classroom · Economics
One of you builds the factory first, and everyone sees it.
One firm commits to its production and cannot take it back; the rival sees the number and then decides. Nobody forces anybody — but a big committed run leaves the follower nothing better than a small one. Played twice, sides swapped.
- In pairs
- About 25 min
- 2 acts
A practice run with fictional students. No real classroom or join code is created.
Try an answer on the phone. Lead the lesson from the screen.
On their phone
You are presenting
Setting up the room…
Lesson deck
Teach it as a ready-made lesson
Hook, how it works, the live game and takeaways. Edit anything.
Move first, or wait and see?
A ready-to-teach lesson deck: a hook, how it works, the live game and takeaways for the debrief.
6 slides · 1 activity
What it teaches
Stackelberg competition teaches commitment as a strategic weapon: by moving first — visibly and irreversibly — the leader shapes the follower's best response and captures a larger share of the market. Students learn to reason backwards from the follower's incentives, meet first-mover advantage as a derived result rather than a slogan, and see why the power comes from the commitment being unbreakable, not from mere speed.
- First-mover advantage
- Imperfect competition
Debrief, while the boards are still up
- 01
The leader never forced the follower to do anything. So where did the advantage come from?
- 02
Followers: what would the leader have had to commit to before a large run stopped being credible to you?
- 03
When is moving first a disadvantage? What has to be true about the game?
How it works
- 01
Add it to your library
Sign up free and pull the activity from Decka's built-in classroom catalog — one click copies it into your own library, ready to run from Decka or inside PowerPoint.
- 02
Students join by QR
Everyone scans from the projector and plays in their phone's browser. No app, no account, nothing to install.
- 03
You run the room
You move the activity phase by phase: collection closes, the boards resolve on the big screen, and the debrief happens while the results are still up.
What is the Stackelberg game?
Stackelberg's model takes Cournot's market and breaks its symmetry: one firm commits to a quantity first, the other observes it and responds. Solved backwards, the leader chooses its output knowing exactly how the follower will react — and the result is the textbook's cleanest demonstration of first-mover advantage, with the theory putting the leader's earnings at double the follower's. The catch students remember: the advantage lives entirely in the commitment. A leader who could quietly revise its number would just be a Cournot firm again.
In the activity, the commitment is real: the leader's production goes to the follower's phone before the follower chooses, and it cannot be taken back. Then the sides swap, so every student leads once and follows once and feels the game from both chairs — the leader's confidence and the follower's constrained best response. On the projector, the room's markets sit beside the same demand curve the Cournot and Bertrand games in this library use, so a course running all three ends the week with three prices from one market and the sharpest question in industrial organisation: what changed?
FAQ
Stackelberg game questions, answered
What does the follower actually see?
The leader's committed production, on their own phone, before they choose their own. That visibility is the entire model — the follower is best-responding to a fact, not guessing at an intention.
Why swap the sides?
Because the lesson is asymmetric and the empathy should not be. Playing both chairs is what turns 'first-mover advantage' from a phrase about winners into an understanding of why the follower's rational response is what hands the leader the prize.
How does this fit with the Cournot and Bertrand games?
All three sell the identical crate into the same demand at the same cost — one market, three rules. Cournot moves simultaneously in quantities, Bertrand in prices, Stackelberg in sequence. Run together they make the point no single game can: the rules of engagement move the price as much as the market does.
Do students need an app or an account?
No. Students scan a QR code from the projector (or open a link) and play in their phone's browser. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
Does it work in PowerPoint or Google Slides?
In PowerPoint, yes: open the Decka add-in on a slide and choose the Classroom tile. Google Slides is not supported yet; there you present from Decka itself. Students play from their phones either way.
How many students can play at once?
Up to 50 participants per live activity on the free plan, 150 on Pro, and 300 on Badass.
More economics games to run live
- Closing time at the market
- You are the market
- Who really pays a tax?
- Two factories, one market, and the price you both set
- Two sellers, identical crates, and whoever is cheapest takes the lot
- Send it and see what comes back
- Ten coins and nobody can stop you
- One lot, and the best loser sets the price
- Spend the neighbourhood fund
- Four boats and a bay that belongs to nobody
- What is a flat worth to you?
- Three cars on one forecourt
- Tenants and landlords
- All economics activities
Ready to make your
presentations interactive?
Start free. No credit card required.