STUDY GROUP IN EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS

DSE UNIBO 2007-08

1) Aim: A mini crash course on Experimental Economics from scratch
Discussing:

1. methodology
2. applicability and its limits
3. some applications
4. recent development
5. lab implementation

2) Method
For each meeting there will be an agenda with points based on single papers (or chapters of books).
Each reading is assigned to somebody who will (i) carefully read the paper, (ii) present it (informally!) illustrating important points, explanations (why important etc.) and open questions (iii) lead the open discussion.
Participation to the meeting is open but participants are expected to read the material before the meeting and contribute to the discussion in order to have a lively debate.
If needed, presentations and discussion may be in English.

3) Schedule with topics and reading material

Meeting 0: 11/01/08 - 12 am seminar room piazza DSE Piazza scaravilli:
Organization setup: reading list, dates of next meetings, presenters
- Pagine distribuite con mailing list interessati a Unibo e Memo dell'incontro con discussione

Meeting 1: Venerdì 18/1/08 ore 12-14 (con auto-panino) Aula 21 facolta' di economia Bologna (e non Sala seminari DSE Scaravilli come precedntemente annunciato)
TOPIC: introduzione e definizioni, alcune questioni metodologiche e varie
- Un esempio: Ultimatum game in pratica PRESENTA Marco Casari
- Cameron, Lisa A. (1999); “Raising the Stakes in the Ultimatum Game: Experimental Evidence from Indonesia”, Economic-Inquiry 37(1), 47-59 PRESENTA Davide Dragone
- Smith, Vernon (1982), “Microeconomic Systems as an Experimental Science,” American Economic Review, 72, 5, Dec., 923-955
- Palfrey, T. and R. Porter (1991) Guidelines for submission of manuscripts on experimental economics, Econometrica, 59, 4, 1197-98 PRESENTA Marco Casari

Meeting 2: Venerdì 8/2/08 ore 12-14 (con auto-panino) Sala seminari DSE Scaravilli
TOPIC:
- Approfondimento di alcuni temi discussi la volta precedente. PRESENTA M. Casari lucidi
- Douglas Dyer; John H. Kagel; Dan Levin A Comparison of Naive and Experienced Bidders in Common Value Offer Auctions: A Laboratory Analysis The Economic Journal, Vol. 99, No. 394. (Mar., 1989), pp. 108-115. PRESENTA G. Calzolari, lucidi
- Double auction market in laboratorio informatico ecobo. Figura con i dati generati.

Meeting 3: Venerdì 22/2/08 ore 12-14 (con auto-panino) Sala seminari DSE Scaravilli
TOPICS:
1) Introduzione e Approfondimento di alcuni temi non discussi la volta precedente. PRESENTA G. Calzolari lucidi
2) Yan Chen and Robert Gazzale, When Does Learning in Games Generate Convergence to Nash Equilibria? The Role of Supermodularity in an Experimental Setting . American Economic Review vol. 94, No. 5, December 2004: 1505-1535. PRESENTA Andrea Blasco lucidi
(sullo stesso tema Learning and Incentive Compatible Mechanisms for Public Goods Provision: An Experimental Study, Yan Chen and Fang-Fang Tang. Journal of Political Economy 106 (1998): 633-662.)
3) Harrison, Glenn W. and John A. List (2004) “Field Experiments,” Journal of Economic Literature, 42, 4 PRESENTA Maria Bigoni. lucidi

Meeting 4:Venerdì 7/3/08 ore 12-14 (con auto-panino) Sala seminari DSE Scaravilli
TOPIC:
- Harrison, Glenn W. and John A. List (2004) “Field Experiments,” Journal of Economic Literature, 42, 4 PRESENTA Maria Bigoni. lucidi
- Fehr,-Ernst; Goette,-Lorenz (2007) Do Workers Work More if Wages Are High? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment. American-Economic-Review. March 2007; 97(1): 298-317 PRESENTA Randolph Bruno lucidi
- Alcuni commenti al libro "Experimental Methods, A primer for Economists" di Friedman and Shyam, PRESENTANO Alessandra Giovagnoli; Alessandro Baldi Antognini lucidi
- CONCLUSIONI

Readings

- Reading pack

- Handbooks e letteratura generale
Una presentazione sistematica dello stato dell'arte a oggi non c'e'. Per chi vuole vedere cosa e' stato gia' fatto nella propria area di interesse, quello che piu' si avvicina a un manuale sono i seguenti due libri di testo:
1) Il piu' sistematico e'Kagel, John H. and Alvin E. Roth (1995) Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton University Press (Paperback) anche se ormai risale a parecchi anni fa'. Consiglio di dare una scorsa all'indice su amazon
2) Il piu' aggiornato e' Camerer, Colin (2003) Behavioral Game Theory. Experiments in Strategic Interaction,Princeton University Press (Hardcover) Per un commento di due pagine sul libro fatte per il Journal of Economic Literature,

Un terzo libro riguarda un'introduzione alla metodologia di esperimenti in economia:
3) Friedman, Daniel and Shyam Sunder (1994) Experimental Methods, A primer for Economists, Cambridge University Press. indice su amazon

Analisi statistica specifica:
4) Siegel, Sidney N. John Castellan, Jr (1988) Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences, 2nd ed., New York : McGraw-Hill

Link Utili [scrivete per suggerire link a pagine web utili ed interessanti]
- Economic Science Association is a professional organization devoted to experimental economics
- Chrales Holt homepage (a lot of stuff for reasearch and teaching): Vecnolab experiments for eaching