Cover -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Experiments in Economics -- 1.2 Does Economics Need Experiments? -- 1.3 The Practice of Experimental Economics -- 1.4 The Illustrations and the Structure of the Book -- 1.5 Methods, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science -- 2 Theory Testing and the Domain of Economic Theory -- 2.1 Domain Restrictions: Economic Theory and the Laboratory -- 2.2 Generality and External Validity -- 2.3 The Blame-the-Theory Argument -- 2.4 The Concept of Domain -- 2.5 The Laboratory and the Three Senses of Domain -- 2.6 Application to Experimental Tests of Choice Theory -- 2.7 Application to Experimental Tests of Equilibrium Predictions -- 2.8 Conclusions -- 3 Experimental Testing in Practice -- 3.1 Preliminaries -- 3.2 Experimental Testing and the Duhem-Quine Thesis -- 3.3 On the Significance of the DQT for Testing -- 3.4 On Testing Game Theory -- 3.5 Hard Cores, Progress, and Experiments -- 3.6 Conclusion -- 4 Experiments and Inductive Generalization -- 4.1 Preliminaries -- 4.2 Deduction versus Induction -- 4.3 How Inductive Investigation Works -- 4.4 Experiments as Tests -- 4.5 Exhibits -- 4.6 Why Be Interested in Exhibits? -- 4.7 Do Exhibits Need to Be Explained? -- 4.8 Multiple Causation -- 4.9 Explaining Exhibits Inductively -- 4.10 Investigating Exhibits without Trying to Explain Them -- 4.11 Experiments as Models -- 4.12 Conclusion -- 5 External Validity -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Are Economics Experiments Models? -- 5.3 Tests of Applied Economics Theories -- 5.4 Types of Artificiality Criticism -- 5.5 Alteration Contrasted with Omission and Contamination -- 5.6 Evaluating Alteration Criticisms -- 5.7 Field Experiments -- 5.8 Conclusions -- 6 Incentives in Experiments -- 6.1 Preliminaries -- 6.2 Incentives, Design, and Control -- 6.3 Incentives in Experimental Economics: Convention in Action.

6.4 Three Perspectives on the Effect of Incentives on Behavior -- 6.5 Incentive Mechanisms -- 6.6 Conclusion -- 7 Noise and Variability in Experimental Data -- 7.1 "Noise" in Economics and in Experimental Economics -- 7.2 "Noise" in Individual Decision Experiments -- 7.3 "Noise" in Experimental Games -- 7.4 Exploring Different Stochastic Specifications -- 7.5 Concluding Remarks -- 8 Conclusion -- 8.1 How Successful Has Experimental Economics Been in Developing a Sound Methodology? -- 8.2 How Successful Has Experimental Economics Been in Increasing Understanding of Economic Behavior? -- 8.3 Has Experimental Economics Had a Positive Impact on Wider Economics? -- References -- Index.

Since the 1980s, there has been explosive growth in the use of experimental methods in economics, leading to exciting developments in economic theory and policy. Despite this, the status of experimental economics remains controversial. In Experimental Economics, the authors draw on their experience and expertise in experimental economics, economic theory, the methodology of economics, philosophy of science, and the econometrics of experimental data to offer a balanced and integrated look at the nature and reliability of claims based on experimental research.The authors explore the history of experiments in economics, provide examples of different types of experiments, and show that the growing use of experimental methods is transforming economics into a genuinely empirical science. They explain that progress is being held back by an uncritical acceptance of folk wisdom regarding how experiments should be conducted, a failure to acknowledge that different objectives call for different approaches to experimental design, and a misplaced assumption that principles of good practice in theoretical modeling can be transferred directly to experimental design. Experimental Economics debates how such limitations might be overcome, and will interest practicing experimental economists, nonexperimental economists wanting to interpret experimental research, and philosophers of science concerned with the status of knowledge claims in economics.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2019. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.