Experimental economics and the artificiality of alteration

Nicholas Bardsley

Journal of Economic Methodology, 2005, vol. 12, issue 2, 239-251

Abstract: A neglected critique of social science laboratories alleges that they implement phenomena different to those supposedly under investigation. The critique purports to be conceptual and so invulnerable to a technical solution. I argue that it undermines some economics designs seeking to implement features of real societies, and counsels more modesty in experimental write-ups. It also constitutes a plausible argument that laboratory economics experiments are necessarily less demonstrative than natural scientific ones. More radical sceptical conclusions are unwarranted.

Keywords: artificiality; experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

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DOI: 10.1080/13501780500086115

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