The Art of Experimental Economics Twenty Top Papers Reviewed Routledge Advances in Behavioural Economics and Finance Series

Applying experimental methods has become one of the most powerful and versatile ways to obtain economic insights, and experimental economics has especially supported the development of behavioral economics. The Art of Experimental Economics identifies and reviews 20 of the most important papers to have been published in experimental economics in order to highlight the power and methods of this area, and provides many examples of findings in behavioral economics that have extended knowledge in the economics discipline as a whole.

Chosen through a combination of citations, recommendations by scholars in the field, and voting by members of leading societies, the 20 papers under review ? some by Nobel prize-winning economists ? run the full gamut of experimental economics from theoretical expositions to applications demonstrating experimental economics in action. Also written by a leading experimental economist, each chapter provides a brief summary of the paper, makes the case for why that paper is one of the top 20 in the field, discusses the use made of the experimental method, and considers related work to provide context for each paper. These reviews quickly expose readers to the breadth of application possibilities and the methodological issues, leaving them with a firm understanding of the legacy of the papers? contributions.

This text provides a survey of some of the very best research in experimental and behavioral economics and is a valuable resource for scholars and economics instructors, students seeking to develop capability in applying experimental methods, and economics researchers who wish to further explore the experimental approach.

(1) Introducing 20 Top Papers and their Reviewers (2) An Experimental Study of Competitive Market Behavior (by Vernon L. Smith) (3) The Strategy Method as an Instrument for the Exploration of Limited Rationality in Oligopoly Game Behavior (by Reinhard Selten) (4) An Experimental Analysis of Ultimatum Bargaining (by Werner Güth, Rolf Schmittberger and Bernd Schwarze) (5) The Winner’s Curse and Public Information in Common Value Auctions (by John H. Kagel and Dan Levin) (6) Group Size Effects in Public Goods Provision: The Voluntary Contributions Mechanism (by R. Mark Isaac and James M. Walker) (7) Rational Expectations and the Aggregation of Diverse Information in Laboratory Security Markets (by Charles R. Plott and Shyam Sunder) (8) Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem (by Daniel Kahneman, Jack L. Knetsch, Richard H. Thaler) (9) Bargaining and Market Behavior in Jerusalem, Ljubljana, Pittsburgh and Tokyo: An Experimental Study (by Alvin E. Roth, Vesna Prasnikar, Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara and Shmuel Zamir) (10) Unraveling in Guessing Games: An Experimental Study (by Rosemarie Nagel) (11) Trust, Reciprocity, and Social History (by Joyce Berg, John Dickhaut, and Kevin McCabe) (12) Cooperation and Punishment in Public Goods Experiments (by Ernst Fehr and Simon Ga ̈chter) (13) A Fine is a Price (by Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini) (14) Giving according to GARP: An Experimental Test of the Consistency of Preferences for Altruism (by James Andreoni and John Miller) (15) Risk Aversion and Incentive Effects (by Charles Holt and Susan Laury) (16) Does market experience eliminate market anomalies? (by John A. List) (17) Promises and Partnership (by Gary Charness and Martin Dufwenberg) (18) The Hidden Costs of Control (by Armin Falk and Michael Kosfeld) (19) Do Women Shy Away from Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much? (by Muriel Niederle and Lise Vesterlund) (20) Group Identity and Social Preferences (by Yan Chen and Sherry X. Li) (21) Lies in Disguise—An Experimental Study on Cheating (by Urs Fischbacher and Franziska Föllmi-Heusi)

Gary Charness is a Professor of Economics and the Director of the Experimental and Behavioral Economics Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Mark Pingle is a Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA.