Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Trade and wages
- 2 Politics and trade policy
- 3 Economic analysis of political institutions: an introduction
- 4 Game-theoretic models of market structure
- 5 Rationality and knowledge in game theory
- 6 Experiments and the economics of individual decision making under risk and uncertainty
- 7 Theory and experiment in the analysis of strategic interaction
- 8 Evolutionary game theory in economics
- 9 Learning from learning in economics
- Index
6 - Experiments and the economics of individual decision making under risk and uncertainty
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- 1 Trade and wages
- 2 Politics and trade policy
- 3 Economic analysis of political institutions: an introduction
- 4 Game-theoretic models of market structure
- 5 Rationality and knowledge in game theory
- 6 Experiments and the economics of individual decision making under risk and uncertainty
- 7 Theory and experiment in the analysis of strategic interaction
- 8 Evolutionary game theory in economics
- 9 Learning from learning in economics
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Of all the areas of economics into which the experimental approach has spread its increasingly numerous tentacles, that of the economics of individual decision making under risk and uncertainty can probably claim the most productive (and possibly most successful) interaction between theorists and experimentalists. Here, over many years, we have seen a truly scientific approach to the production of economic knowledge. In this chapter I want to rather single mindedly concentrate on this interaction, emphasizing what has been achieved as a consequence, and what remains to be achieved. This single mindedness has its costs in that I will be pursuing my objective in a rather direct fashion, ignoring the many detours and divertissements that could be explored en route. Fortunately, I can refer those readers who would prefer the scenic route to the splendid survey by Colin Camerer (1995), “Individual decision making,” in the recently published and invaluable Handbook of Experimental Economics edited by John Kagel and AI Roth. My direct approach will probably also wreak great damage to certain historical facts and figures; for this I can only apologize.
I adopt an historical approach, partly to set things in perspective, but also to emphasize that where we are now depends very heavily on the route we have followed in the past; it is not necessarily a place where we intended to be nor want to be; nor is it necessarily the best place from which to start our future research.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and ApplicationsSeventh World Congress, pp. 173 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997