John List discusses value of field experiments in economics

John List, Professor in Economics, discusses the role of fieldexperiments in studying economics in the July 11 issue of Science.Hisobservations are included in an article "ECONOMICS: Homo experimentalisEvolve" published in the journal's Perspectives section.He writes:

"In economics, laboratory experiments have been used to meaningfully testtheories, lend important qualitative insights, and provide a firstglimpse at what can happen in an economic system. To complement lab andnaturally occurring economic data, studies that gather data via fieldexperiments have become more frequent during the past decade. Suchexperiments are a useful marriage between laboratory and naturallyoccurring data in that they represent a mixture of control and realismusually not achieved in the lab or with naturally occurring data."

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