The experimental method is one commonly applied to issues of environmental economics; this book brings together 63 leading researchers in the area and their latest work exploring the behavioural underpinnings of experimental environmental economics. The essays in this volume will be illuminating for both researchers and practitioners, specific
This title was first published in 2003.Over the decades, experiential methods have become an established research tool in environmental economics. Economists working in this area have realised that experimental methods from economics and other disciplines such as psychology and decision theory can be applied to gain insight into the behavioral underpinnings of environmental policy. Economic experiments, in the lab and field, are an attractive tool to address the incentive and contextual questions that arise in environmental policy. Experiments have been and continue to be designed to capture the key elements of market and non-market choices to test theory, for pattern recognition, to testbed new institutions, and to value public goods, including environmental protection. This volume collects the most significant papers in the literature that identify the underpinnings of experimental approaches are complemented by works that specifically address the use of experimental economics to identify choice under risk, conflict, cooperation, environmental policy instruments, and environmental valuation
This book explores frontier work at the intersection of experimental and environmental economics. It focuses on improving benefit - cost analysis, which remains the hallmark of public policy decision-making around the globe. It also explores important aspects associated with optimal resource use and regulation of resources.
'Until not much more than 20 years ago, economists frequently lamented the fact that they were limited in their empirical analyses to statistical assessments of market behavior, because controlled economic experiments were (thought to be) infeasible, unethical, or both. Much has changed in the intervening years! In this new volume, John List, Michael Price, and their co-authors provide a diverse set of applications of experimental approaches to the environmental economics realm. This is among the most promising of new areas of research in the economics of the environment, and this book provides a superb point of entry for experts and novices alike.' – Robert Stavins, Harvard University, US Laboratory and field experiments have grown significantly in prominence over the past decade. The experimental method provides randomization in key variables therefore permitting a deeper understanding of important economic phenomena. This path-breaking volume provides a valuable collection of experimental work within the area of environmental and resource economics and showcases how laboratory and field experiments can be used for both positive and normative purposes. The Handbook provides a timely reminder to social scientists, policymakers, international bodies, and practitioners that appropriate decision-making relies on immediate and sharp feedback, both of which are key features of proper experimentation. This book includes a collection of research that makes use of the experimental method to explore key issues within environmental and resource economics that will prove invaluable for both students and academics working in these areas.
This paper examines the application of quasi-experimental methods in environmental economics. We begin with two observations: i) standard quasi-experimental methods, first applied in other microeconomic fields, typically assume unit-level treatments that do not spill over across units; (ii) because public goods, such as environmental attributes, exhibit externalities, treatment of one unit often affects other units. To explore the implications of applying standard quasi-experimental methods to public good problems, we extend the potential outcomes framework to explicitly distinguish between unit-level source and the resulting group-level exposure of a public good. This new framework serves as a foundation for reviewing and interpreting key papers from the recent empirical literature. We formally demonstrate that two common quasi-experimental estimators of the marginal social benefit of a public good can be biased due to externality spillovers, even when the source of the public good itself is quasi-randomly assigned. We propose an unbiased estimator for the valuation of local public goods and discuss how it can be implemented in future studies. Finally, we consider how to preserve the advantages of the quasi-experimental approach when valuing global public goods, such as climate change mitigation, for which no control units are available.
This textbook provides a hands-on and intuitive overview of the methodological foundations of experimental economics. Experimental economic research has been an integral part of economic science for quite some time and is gaining more and more attention in related disciplines. The book addresses the design and execution of experiments, the evaluation of experimental data and the equipment of an experimental laboratory. It illustrates the challenges involved in designing and conducting experiments and helps the reader to address them in practice.
Specially selected from The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics 2nd edition, each article within this compendium covers the fundamental themes within the discipline and is written by a leading practitioner in the field. A handy reference tool.
This book unites sixty-three leading researchers in the area of experimental evironmental economics and their latest explorations in its behavioural underpinnings, with the critical advantage of appealing to experimental and non experimental economists.
This paper argues that an increased application of quasi-experimental and experimental techniques will improve understanding about core environmental economics questions. This argument is supported by a review of the limitations of associational evidence in assessing causal hypotheses. The paper also discusses the benefits of experiments and quasi-experiments, outlines some quasi-experimental methods, and highlights some threats to their validity. It then illustrates the quasi-experimental method by assessing the validity of a new one in environmental economics that seeks to estimate the impact of the Endangered Species Act on property markets in North Carolina. Ultimately, the greater application of experimental and quasi-experimental techniques has the potential to identify efficient policies that increase social welfare.
Experimental economics is a rapidly growing field of inquiry, and there currently exist several textbooks and surveys describing the results of laboratory experiments in economics. This primer, however, is the first hands-on guide to the physical aspects of actually conducting experiments in economics. It tells researchers, teachers and students in economics how to deal with human subjects, how to design meaningful laboratory environments, how to design experiments, how to conduct experiments and how to analyse and report the data. It also deals with methodological issues. It can be used to structure an undergraduate or graduate course in experimental economics.