Lab Experiments Are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences

Armin Falk and James J. Heckman ()
Additional contact information
James J. Heckman: University of Chicago

No 4540, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Laboratory experiments are a widely used methodology for advancing causal knowledge in the physical and life sciences. With the exception of psychology, the adoption of laboratory experiments has been much slower in the social sciences, although during the last two decades, the use of lab experiments has accelerated. Nonetheless, there remains considerable resistance among social scientists who argue that lab experiments lack "realism" and "generalizability". In this article we discuss the advantages and limitations of laboratory social science experiments by comparing them to research based on non-experimental data and to field experiments. We argue that many recent objections against lab experiments are misguided and that even more lab experiments should be conducted.

Keywords: controlled variation; field experiments; laboratory experiments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C90 C91 C92 C93 D00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14 pages
Date: 2009-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-knm
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (487)

Published - final version published in: Science, 2009, 326 (5952), 535-538

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp4540.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Lab Experiments are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences (2010)
Working Paper: Lab Experiments are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences (2009)
Working Paper: Lab Experiments are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp4540

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().