Field experiments in economics: The past, the present, and the future

Abstract

We thank Glenn Harrison, the editor Esther Gal-Or, an anonymous associate editor, and an anonymous referee for astute comments that improved this paper. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

The lab versus the virtual lab and virtual field—An experimental investigation of trust games with communication

“…Virtual worlds such as Second Life allow for screening and blocking of participants, double-blind procedures, randomization regarding recruitment and matching of participants and identification of IP addresses and participating client names (see Bloomfield andRennekamp, 2008, andAtlas, 2008, for an overview on possible measures to exercise control in virtual world experiments). An added benefit in terms of control is that field experiments in virtual worlds lend themselves to relatively easy replication in terms of protocol (Levitt and List, 2009).…”

Gender at work: Incentives and self-sorting

“…Experiments are useful to isolate particular variables, for which a clean effect would be too difficult to estimate in a really noising setting (Levitt and List, 2007) or when a field experiment is not feasible (Levitt and List, 2009). Moreover: "While laboratory processes are simple in comparison to naturally occurring processes, they are real processes in the sense that real people participate for real and substantial profits and follow real rules in doing so.…”

Dinâmicas do Desempenho Financeiro, da Mudança Estratégica e da Concentração Industrial em Empresas Brasileiras

“…Porém a desconcentração gera eficiências na competitividade empresarial por meio dos produtos levados ao mercado e clientes atendidos, que refletem em maiores vendas e lucros (Bharadwaj & Varadarajan, 2005). Nesse sentido, a concentração setorial não é uma variável causal (Levitt & List, 2009), mas sim contextual, que oferece condições necessárias e, em alguns casos, suficientes para que algumas ações (eficientes/ineficientes) ocorram e gerem resultados financeiros. Na próxima seção é formalizado um modelo que consolida essas perspectivas teóricas.…”