Experimental Economics
- Credits: 6
- Ending: Examination
- Range: 24sP
- Semester: winter
- Year: 2
- Faculty of Economics and Finance
Teachers
Included in study programs
Teaching results
Understanding
Distinguishing between causality and correlation
Competence
Critical thinking, identification of alternative explanations of a particular economic phenomenon, ability to ask a research question and answer it
Skills
Designing a laboratory and field experiment to answer a research question, application of experimental methods within an organization or industry to find out what works and what does not.
Indicative content
• Methodology of science, the role of theory, hypothesis testing, the importance of experiments
• Property rights and their impact in economic transactions
• Cooperation – one of two primary challenges in organizations
• Coordination – the second of two primary challenges in organizations
• Punishment and Enforcement of Contracts
• Competitiveness as a source of efficiency
• Market institutions and their impact on market behavior
• Market design
Support literature
Experimental Methods – A Primer for Economists by Daniel Friedman and Shyam Sunder, Cambridge University Press 2004
1. V. Smith, “Markets as Economizers of Information: Experimental Examination of the Hayek Hypothesis,” Economic Inquiry , vol. 20, April 1982, pp. 165-179.
2. V. Smith, “An Empirical Study of Decentralized Institutions of Monopoly Restraint,” pp. 83-106 in G. Horwich and J. Quirk (eds.), Essays in Contemporary Fields of Economics. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1981.
3. V. Smith, “Theory, Experiment, and Economics,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 3, Winter 1989, pp. 151-169.
4. V. Smith, “Economics in the Laboratory,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 8, Winter 1994, pp. 113-131.
5 . J. Cox, “On Testing the Utility Hypothesis,” Economic Journal, vol. 107, July 1997, pp. 1054-1078.
Requirements to complete the course
20% class exercise: specifying a research question
40% class project: The primary focus of the course is on applying experimental methods, which can only be done through a project (rather than an exam), hence the 40% weight on the project.
40% written exam
Student workload
Part time 6 x 26 = 156
Lectures 24 h, studying for the exam 60 h, class project 52 h, studying for office hours 20h
Language whose command is required to complete the course
slovak
Date of approval: 06.02.2023
Date of the latest change: 27.01.2022