Experimental and Behavioral Economics Tutorial Sebastian Strasser

Experimental and Behavioral Economics

Tutorial

Sebastian Strasser

University of Munich

May 11, 2011

Objectives of this Class

What this class is NOTabout:

I weekly exercises to be handed in or discussed

I parallel tracking of the lecture material

I RA’s solutions available online What this classIS about:

I ”Mini“ Second-year Ph.D. course

I a rough guide how to do experiments in economics

I platform of interaction for all course participants

I learn research techniques to conduct your own experimental project

Methods

I Interaction of all participants (including me!)

I Group work to be done in groups of 4-5

I Signing into a group is a commitment for doing the class In a Nutshell..

A group should jointlyset up, motivate, implement and analyzeits own experimental research project.

Your Idea should be..

I .. good.

I .. new.

I .. relevant.

Your Idea should be.. (Take II)

I .. from economics or at least related to economics.

I .. nothing that has already been done.

I .. an experimental setting (laboratory or field/natural experiment).

I .. realistically implementable with a standard budget But: Where to get good ideas from?

I Reading journal articles (i.e. from scientific work)

I Reading the newspaper (i.e. from daily life)

Where to find papers

I RePEc/IDEAS:http://ideas.repec.org/

I New Economics Papers: http://nep.repec.org/

I SSRN:http://www.ssrn.com/ern/index.html More specialized, e.g.:

I IZA:http://www.iza.org/

I CESifo: http://www.cesifo-group.de/

And, of course:

I Google Scholar, Researchers’ Webpages

I General Interest Journal Homepages (AER, QJE, ECMA, JPE, ReStud; check forthcoming)

I Field Journals

I Games and Economic Behavior

I Experimental Economics

I Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

I Journal of Economic Theory

Elements of Assessment

The tutorial has three elements that cover 40 %of your grade in the course. 60 %from the written exam on the lecture material.

1. Presentation 2. Mini-Paper

3. Instructions of Experiment

I Final grade on all three parts in total

I Roughly equal weight on all three parts

Presentation

I elaborated in group

I end of June, beginning of July (see schedule later)

I 40 min per group

I not exceed 25 minutes, leave 15 minutes for discussion

I possibility to adapt slides after presentation to include comments, questions, etc.

I slides to be handed in at the end of the semester

Content of the Presentation

I motivationof the research question

I relatedliterature (brief, details in Mini-Paper)

I theoretic solutionof the game/situation/interaction

I experimentaldesign(detailed)

I hypothesesto be tested

I account of expectedresults (brief)

I expected amount of costs (one slide at max)

Mini-Paper

I written text

I should contain motivation and literature in detail

I relevance, motivating example, title, precise relation to literature, etc.

I maximum of 4 pages text (strict)

I ”Introduction“ to your paper in spe

I preferably to be written after your presentation

I to be handed in at the end of the semester

Instructions

I as if you were to do your experiment tomorrow

I including all relevant information for the experimenter (e.g.

sequential distribution, pre-text, etc.)

I briefly comment on treatment adaptations

I to be handed in at the end of the semester

I adapted if you do a field/natural experiment

Preliminary Plan of the Tutorial

11.05. Introduction, Organisation, Setting up Groups (12 - 2pm) 01.06. zTree Introduction, Group Work (12 - 4pm)

20.06. Presentations of Projects (3 groups, 4 - 6 pm) 22.06. Presentations of Projects (3 groups, 12 - 2 pm)

06.07. Presentations of Projects, Experiment in the lab (3 groups, 12 - 4 pm)

13.07. Statistics for Experiments, Introduction to Stata for Experiments (12 - 4 pm)

20.07. Wrap-Up, Feedback, Handing in of Assessments (12 - 2 pm) Subject to changes that will be communicated via mail

Contact

Office: Giselastrasse 10, 3rd floor, room 314 Phone: 089-2180-9776

Mail: sebastian.strasser@lrz.uni-muenchen.de