Field Experiments

UCF Economics Working Paper No. 03-12

90 Pages Posted: 18 Apr 2005

See all articles by Glenn W. Harrison

Glenn W. Harrison

Georgia State University - J. Mack Robinson College of Business

John A. List

University of Chicago - Department of Economics

Date Written: July 2004

Abstract

Experimental economists are leaving the reservation. They are recruiting subjects in the field rather than in the classroom, using field goods rather than induced valuations, and using field context rather than abstract terminology in instructions. We argue that there is something methodologically fundamental behind this trend. Field experiments differ from laboratory experiments in many ways. Although it is tempting to view field experiments as simply less controlled variants of laboratory experiments, we argue that to do so would be to seriously mischaracterize them. What passes for "control" in laboratory experiments might in fact be precisely the opposite if it is artificial to the subject or context of the task. We propose six factors that can be used to determine the field context of an experiment: the nature of the subject pool, the nature of the information that the subjects bring to the task, the nature of the commodity, the nature of the task or trading rules applied, the nature of the stakes, and the environment that subjects operate in.

Keywords: Field experiments

JEL Classification: C93

Suggested Citation

Harrison, Glenn William and List, John A., Field Experiments (July 2004). UCF Economics Working Paper No. 03-12, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=698961 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.698961

Glenn William Harrison (Contact Author)

Georgia State University - J. Mack Robinson College of Business ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.cear.gsu.edu/

John A. List

University of Chicago - Department of Economics ( email )

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