Subject Pool Bias in Economics Experiments

Pablo Guillen and Róbert Veszteg

No 06/03, ThE Papers from Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada.

Abstract: In this paper we consider data from a large number of economic experiments, and look for demographic effects that may be a source of subject pool bias if not carefully accounted for in the subsequent statistical analysis. Our dataset contains information on 2,408 subjects and 597 experimental sessions from 74 experiments recorded over more than 2 years at an experimental laboratory. Using different estimation methods and model specifications, we identify the significant demographic determinants of personal earnings, and find that they account for less than 4% of the observed variation. Thus we deliver empirical evidence supporting the experimental method as monetary incentives, and therefore some kind of strategic behavior, seem to be more important than demographics in the laboratory. Exploiting the timeseries nature of the data we also study some dynamic issues of the subject pool: we analyze the factors that influence subjects’ decisions on returning to the laboratory.

Keywords: Experiments; Subject pool bias; Demographic characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2006-03-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gra:wpaper:06/03

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