Experiments in Social Science

Introduction to Social and Economic Science

26 January 2010

The design, difficulties, and results of social science experiments, Part II.

Each part contains a brief introduction to experimental social science, and descriptions of some real experiments. The introduction is the same, but the experiments are different. You must attend two parts, and in the third you will be participating in a real experiment.

Economics is a science

Historical tests

Problems of historical tests

Experimental tests

Problems with experiments

Expected Utility

Choice of lottery experiment

Choice of lottery experiment, cont.

Preference reversal

Allais Paradox

Ultimatum game: Roth experiment

Roth game results

Ohio State University experiment

Market games

Market games, cont.

Oral Double auction

Designing a Market: The Oil Market Experiment

Pure Exhaustible Resources

Consumer Behavior

Seller Behavior

Seller Actions in the Oil Market

The Planning Horizon for an Exhaustible Resource

Discounting in Dynamic Problems

Solving the Horizon and Discounting Problems