Mercatus Center at George Mason University - Browse Research Areas : Experimental Economics

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Experimental Economics

Recent Publications:

	Mercatus on Policy: Using Economics Experiments to Evaluate Tort Reform Proposals November 30, 2007 Mercatus On Policy Kevin McCabe
	Increasing costs associated with the U.S. tort system have generated widespread concern about unfairness, wasted resources, and congestion within the legal system. Tort reforms designed to promote pre-trial settlement and relieve congestion in the system would mitigate these problems.
	Reciprocity and Social Order: What Do Experiments Tell Us About Economic Growth? December 1, 2005 Journal Articles Kevin McCabe
	This paper makes three observations for policy-makers, interested in promoting economic growth, based on the experimental work done at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science. First, safeguards must be put into place to protect impersonal exchange from our innate desire for personal exchange. Second, policy must take into account the heterogeneity of individual cognitive strategies that are observed in economics laboratories. Third, policy must be test-bedded in economic experiments where the status quo is modeled as an ecologically rational response to the economic environment and the proposed policy change occurs in an environment where individuals have access to
	EPA's Phase III Cooling Water Intake Structures Proposed Rule(2) March 24, 2005 Public Interest Comments
	This comment analyzes EPA's proposed regulation on cooling water intake structures at manufacturing facilities and offshore oil and gas extraction facilities.
	The Effects of a Minimum Wage on the Labor Market: A Complex Perspective - Working Paper June 8, 2004 Working Papers Andres Marroquin, Holly Potter
	In this working paper, Potter and Marroquin adopt a different approach to understand a labor market. They built a competitive labor market from the bottom-up; it is composed by four kinds of employees and four kinds of employers. In the simulation, employees and employers act to reach a minimum level of satisfaction (on the lines of Simon, 1947; and Axtell and Epstein, 1996), which means that they don’t follow a utility maximizing behavior.
	Efficiency in Markets: Evidence from Classroom Experiments with a Cross-Section of Students from East and Central European Countries and the Former Soviet Union April 25, 2004 Working Papers Peter Boettke, Scott Beaulier
	Three experiments were run in Prague, Czech Republic to demonstrate to students the robustness of market institutions. Students participated in Vernon Smith’s double-auction experiment, the double-auction with price controls, and Holt and Laury’s (1997) voluntary provision of public goods experiment.
	Comments on Kevin McCabe's 'Reciprocity and Social Order: What do Experiments Tell Us About Economic Growth?' April 4, 2003 Working Papers Paul Zak

	Reciprocity and Social Order: What Do Experiments Tell Us About Economic Growth? - Working Paper April 4, 2003 Working Papers Kevin McCabe
	This paper makes three observations for policy-makers interested in promoting economic growth, based on the experimental work done at the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science. First, safeguards must be put into place to protect impersonal exchange from our innate desire for personal exchange. Second, policy must take into account the heterogeneity of individual cognitive strategies that are observed in economics laboratories. Third, policy must be test-bedded in economic experiments where the status quo is modeled as an ecologically rational response to the economic environment and the proposed policy change occurs in an environment where individuals have access to a full repertoire of personal exchange behaviors.

Media:

	Learning about bubbles by living through them July 29, 2009 News Articles Alexander Tabarrok, Vernon Smith

	Noted April 19, 2009 News Articles Tyler Cowen

	The Virginia School February 22, 2008 News Articles Robin Hanson, Bryan Caplan, Tyler Cowen, Alexander Tabarrok, Peter Leeson

	The CEO Guide to Prediction Markets August 28, 2006 News Articles Robin Hanson

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