Graduate Experimental Economics

GRADUATE EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS MODULE 2011-2012

John Hey

Welcome to this introduction to this module. The photograph of me on the right was taken at the Grand Canyon, on my way to the ESA (Economic Science Association) Conference in Tucson, Arizona, where Vernon Smith, perhaps the Grandfather of Experimental Economics, worked for many years.

Full details of the module can be found via VLE

This site that you are corrently reading just gives you an outline so that you can decide whether you want to register or not.

Bureaucratic details

Module Code: ECO00016M; Credits: 10; Term:1; Contact Hours: 9 x two-hour Lectures, 2 x two-hour Seminars (22 contact hours); the lectures are from 10.15 to 12.15 on Fridays in P/T/007; the seminars are from 16.15 to 18.15 on Fridays in Weeks 7 and 9 in the EXEC lab in the ARRC building.

Module Organiser: John Hey; Room: A/D/201; Tel: 3786; Email: john.hey@york.ac.uk

Note that there are two forms of registration for this module - depending upon which form of assessment you have chosen; see under Assessment below.

Last year's examination paper

This can be found here.

Introduction

This module is designed to give you not only an introduction to, and an overview of, the field of Experimental Economics, but also some hands-on experience. At the end of it, I hope that many of you will be inspired to carry out some experiments of your own. We will be using the purpose-built EXEC (the Centre for Experimental Economics at the University of York) laboratory in the ARRC building.

Reading

The following references are also listed on the departmental site. Here I list some textbooks which provide useful background reading. You are not expected to read all of these - but just to dip into them as appropriate. Later, I list specific references for the particular lectures.

Camerer C F, Behavioral Game Theory: Experimental Studies of Strategic Interaction, Princeton University Press, 2003.
Davis D D and Holt C A, Experimental Economics, Princeton University Press, 1993.
Friedman D and Sunder S, Experimental Methods: A Primer for Economists, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Hey J D, Experiments in Economics, Blackwell, 1991.
The Economic Journal, 1999, 109, pages 1-45 has an overview of experimental work:
- Loomes G, "Experimental Economics: Introduction".
- Starmer C, "Experimental Economics: Hard Science of Wasteful Tinkering?".
- Binmore K, "Why Experiment in Economics?".
- Loewenstein G, "Experimental Economics From the Vantage-point of Behavioural Economics".
- Loomes G, "Some Lessons From Past Experiments and Some Challenges for the Future".

Background reading for those intending to use experimental methods in the future:

Kagel J H and Roth A E, Handbook of Experimental Economics , Princeton University Press, 1995.

You might also find interesting (though rather dated) reading in

Roth A E (ed), Laboratory Experimentation in Economics: Six Points of View, Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Some useful links are the following:

The Lectures

1. Introduction, Overview and Experimental Methodology
2. Individual Static Decision Making Under Risk
3. Individual Dynamic Decision Making under Risk
4. Applications of Individual Dynamic Decision Making under Risk: Consumption, Savings and Pensions
5. Game Theory
6. Auctions
7. Markets and Trading Institutions.
8. Sequential Markets and/or Information in Markets
9. New Topics: Macro Experiments, Field Experiments and Neuro Economics

Assessment

There are two forms of assessment: a conventional examination and a group project. Which you choose determines the name of the module: Experimental Economics with Examination: this is, formally speaking, an autumn-only module, and the exam will be in January; Experimental Economics with Group Project: this is, formally speaking, a year-long module, and the project deadline will be at the start of the summer term. Group Projects should be discussed and agreed with me.