Economics in the Laboratory

Vernon Smith ()

Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1994, vol. 8, issue 1, 113-131

Abstract: The questions addressed in this paper include: What is a laboratory experiment? What are the reasons why economists conduct such experiments? What have we learned? Among the many findings of experiments are included: institutions (the rules of exchange) matter; optimization in markets is not achieved by conscious calculation; less information is sometimes better; common information is not sufficient to yield common 'knowledge' or expectations; underrevelation is compatible with efficiency; and fairness is a matter of tastes or expectations. Also discussed is the methodological role of experiments in contributing to our knowledge of how things work.

JEL-codes: C90 D00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.8.1.113
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (144)

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