040077 UK Designing Economic Experiments (MA) (2019S)

Experiments in economics have become a standard empirical tool. They are conducted in dedicated decision laboratories, online, or in the field (randomized controlled trials). Applications in auction design, in the setup of incentive schemes, in institutional design (voting rules), and in the evaluation of interventions are abundant.
This course provides students with an overview of experimental economics as well as hands-on experience in designing economic experiments.
In the first part of the course, we will use recent research papers to present relevant methods of experimental economics and to explore potential experimental design issues. We will discuss research on social preferences, moral behavior, cooperation, and risk and time preferences.
In the second part of the course groups of students will design, under the close guidance of the instructors, their own experimental design. In doing so they will learn how to find a relevant and interesting research idea, conduct a pilot experiment, analyze data and present their findings. These steps will be supplemented by practical sessions on experimental methodology and statistical methods suitable for experimental data.