Experimental Methods: A Primer for Economists

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, Jan 28, 1994 - Business & Economics - 229 pages
Experimental economics is a rapidly growing field of inquiry, and there currently exist several textbooks and surveys describing the results of laboratory experiments in economics. This primer, however, is the first hands-on guide to the physical aspects of actually conducting experiments in economics. It tells researchers, teachers and students in economics how to deal with human subjects, how to design meaningful laboratory environments, how to design experiments, how to conduct the experiments, and how to analyze and report the data. It also deals with methodological issues. It can be used to structure an undergraduate or graduate course in experimental economics.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
12 The engine of scientific progress
2
13 Data sources
3
131 Some evidence
6
14 Purposes of experiments
7
Principles of economics experiments
10
22 Controlled economic environments
12
24 Parallelism
15
Conducting an experiment
74
63 Lab setup
75
65 Conductors
76
67 Instruction
77
69 Dryrun periods
78
611 Recording the data
79
613 Laboratory termination of infiniteperiod economies
80
615 Payment
81

25 Practical implications
17
The Hayek hypothesis
18
Experimental design
21
Constants and treatments
22
33 The wit binsubjects design as an example of blocking and randomization
25
34 Other efficient designs
26
35 Practical advice
29
352 Disposition of variables
30
353 Phases of experimentation
31
New market institutions
32
361 Performance testing
33
562 Development testing
34
Human subjects
38
41 Who should your subjects be?
39
412 Professionals
40
413 Classroom experiments
43
414 Gender
44
43 How many subjects?
47
44 Trading commissions and rewards
48
442 Rewards
49
443 The bankruptcy problem
51
45 Instructions
52
452 Examples
53
455 Duration of an experimental session
54
47 Human subject committees and ethics
55
Bargaining experiments
56
Laboratory facilities
61
511 Partial computerization
63
53 Computerized laboratory facilities
64
533 Furniture
65
535 Software
66
54 Random number generation
67
Experiments with monetary overlapping generations economies
68
551 Equilibrium selection in a simple OLG economy
69
552 Hyperinflationary monetary economies
71
617 Bailout plan
82
Data analysis
85
71 Graphs and summary statistics
86
Preliminaries
93
722 Good samples and bad samples
95
73 Reference distributions and hypothesis tests
99
732 External reference distributions
103
733 More statistical tests
104
74 Practical advice
106
Firstprice auctions
107
Reporting your results
110
82 Organization
112
83 Prose tables and figures
113
84 Documentation and replicability
114
85 Project management
115
Assetmarket experiments
116
The Emergence of experimental economics
121
91 Economics as an experimental science
122
92 Games and decisions up to 1952
124
93 Two pioneers
125
94 Experimental economics in Germany
127
95 Early classroom markets
128
96 Building theoretical foundations 196076
129
97 Joining the economics mainstream
131
98 Divergence from experimental psychology
132
Laboratory games
134
Readings in experimental economies
143
Instructions and procedures
174
Forms
201
Econometrica guidelines
205
List of experimental economies laboratories
207
Glossary
211
References
215
Index
227
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