Conceptual tools for assessing experiments: some well-entrenched confusions regarding the internal/external validity distinction

María Jiménez-Buedo

Journal of Economic Methodology, 2011, vol. 18, issue 3, 271-282

Abstract: The notions of internal and external validity of an experiment, coined by Donald T. Campbell in the context of social scientific quasi-experimentation more than 50 years ago, are still central in the debates around the experimental method, both for practitioners and for philosophers of science. This paper points at the more problematic aspects of the distinction between the internal and external validity of experiments and, with a focus on the field of behavioural economics, traces the many misunderstandings that surround the internal/external dyad in the philosophical and social scientific literature.

Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:jecmet:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:271-282

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DOI: 10.1080/1350178X.2011.611027

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