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Experimental Economics is the use of experimental methods to evaluate theoretical predictions of economic behaviour. Historically most economics experiments were conducted in the laboratory, but recently interest in economics field experiments has grown.
Experimental Topics
Economics experiments can be loosely classified into the following topics: Market Games, Bargaining, Auctions, Social Preferences, Learning, Matching, and Field Experiments.
Market Games
Vernon Smith of the University of Arizona conducted pioneering economics experiments on the convergence of prices and quantities to their theoretical equilibrium values in experimental markets. Smith studied the behaviour of mock "buyers" and "sellers", who are told how much they "value" a fictitious commodity, and then asked to competitively "bid" or "ask" on these commodities following the rules of various real world market institutions such as the English auction and the Dutch auction (see Auctions).
Smith found that the price and quantities traded in such markets quickly converge on the values that would be predicted by the economic theory of perfect competition, in spite of the fact that many of the assumptions of perfect competition (large numbers, perfect information) are not met. For these discoveries Smith was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.
Social Preferences
The term "social preferences" refers to the concern (or lack thereof) that people have for each other's well-being, and it encompasses altruism, spitefulness, tastes for equality, and tastes for reciprocity. Experiments on social preferences generally study economic games including the Dictator Game, the Ultimatum Game, the Trust Game, Public Goods Games, and modifications to these canonical settings.
As one example of results, ultimatum game experiments have shown that people are generally willing to sacrifice monetary rewards when offered unequal allocations, thus behaving inconsistently with simple models of self-interest, though quantitative details varies among cultures.
Methodology
Guidelines
Experimental economists generally adhere to the following methodological guidelines:
- Incentivize subjects with real monetary payoffs.
- Publish full experimental instructions.
- Do not use deception.
- Avoid introducing specific, concrete context.
Critiques
The above guidelines have developed in large part to address two central critiques. Specifically, economics experiments are often challenged because of concerns about their "internal validity" and "external validity."
Resources
See also
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