| Abstract: | Although experimental economics has been one of the most rapidlyexpanding fields in economics in recent years, it has so farattracted little sustained methodological discussion. This paperis intended as a step towards filling the gap, and providespreliminary answers to the following questions. (i) What aredistinctive characteristics of the experimental method in economics?(ii) To what extent are the results obtained in the laboratorytransferable to non-laboratory situations? (iii) What are thelimits of the experimental method in economics? (iv) Why isit that experimentation, which has been so successful in thenatural sciences, remains so controversial in the social sciences. |
