Episodes from the Early History of Experimentation in Economics

The present article builds on a background paper that was commissioned for a “Witness Seminar” in 2010 that had a dozen prominent experimental economists -- witnesses, indeed -- discuss the origin and evolution of experimental economics. Rather than providing a history of the experimental method in the behavioral science (with particular emphasis on those practices that informed experimental practices in economics; see Ortmann 2009), I was asked to provide exhibits from the early years of experimental economics... I was asked to refrain from interpretation and evaluation: “any suggestion of a linear history (as for example when, how and why the experimental methods in economics departed from those in psychology) should be avoided… it is absolutely crucial to the success of the Witness Seminar to have the paper written open-ended, highlighting the questions at the time about specific episodes in experimenting. … . ” (Letter Harro Maas and Andrej Svorencik 12/12/2009)