Psychological and experimental economics

Nobel Prize Committee
Additional contact information
Nobel Prize Committee: Nobel Prize Committee

No 2002-2, Nobel Prize in Economics documents from Nobel Prize Committee

Abstract: Traditionally, economic theory has relied on the assumption of a "homo à “conomicus", whose behavior is governed by self-interest and who is capable of rational decision-making. Economics has also been regarded as a non-experimental science, where researchers – as in astronomy or meteorology – have had to rely exclusively on field data, that is, direct observations of the real world. During the last two decades, however, these views have undergone a transformation. Controlled laboratory experiments have emerged as a vital component of economic research and, in certain instances, experimental results have shown that basic postulates in economic theory should be modified. This process has been generated by researchers in two areas: cognitive psychologists who have studied human judgment and decision-making, and experimental economists who have tested economic models in the laboratory. This year’s prize is awarded to the innovators in these two fields: Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith.

Keywords: behavioral economics; experimental economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-12-17

Downloads: (external link)
http://nobelprize.or ... tes/2002/public.html Full text (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Nobel Prize in Economics documents from Nobel Prize Committee
Series data maintained by ().