Searching beyond the lamppost: Let’s focus on economically relevant questions

It is difficult to disagree with Vernon Smith's (2010) assessment of thestate of the art in experimental economics. It is informed by the experienceof someone who was there, right at the beginning of experimental economics.Some of the problems he discusses, like the frequent failure of backward in-duction, the often overlooked influence of context, and the blurry distinctionof stage games vs. repeated games, are well known and - I think - appreci-ated in the …eld. Others, like the "Other-people's money"-problem are newand thought-provoking challenges to experimental economics that have onlybegun to be addressed by researchers.[...]