Can human social cognitive processes and social motives be grasped by the methods of experimental economics? Experimental studies of strategic cognition and social preferences contribute to our understanding of the social aspects of economic decisions making. Yet, papers in this issue argue that...

This paper outlines a method of procuring the benefits of deception in experiments without actually deceiving subjects, which should be suitable for many experimental economics environments. This is done by a modification of an already standard design, the Random Lottery incentive system, which...

This paper outlines a method of procuring the benefits of deception in experiments without actually deceiving subjects, which should be suitable for many experimental economics environments. This is done by a modification of an already standard design, the Random Lottery incentive system, which...

Since the 1980s, there has been explosive growth in the use of experimental methods in economics, leading to exciting developments in economic theory and policy. Despite this, the status of experimental economics remains controversial. In Experimental Economics, the authors draw on their...

Since homo sapiens is a social animal, one might expect human nature - the set of psychological propensities with which our species is naturally endowed - to equip human beings to live in social groups. In this chapter, we consider the implications of this idea for economics and game theory. We...

In public goods experiments, stochastic choice, censoring, and motivational heterogeneity allow experimentalists to differ over the extent of unselfishness, and whether it is reciprocal or altruistic. These problems are addressed econometrically by estimating a finite mixture model to isolate...

Experimental dictator games have been used to explore unselfish behaviour. Evidence is presented here, however, that subjects’ generosity can be reversed by allowing them to take money from a partner. Dictator game giving therefore does not stem from orthodox social preferences. It can be...

Coordination on focal points in one shot games can often be explained by team reasoning, a departure from individualistic choice theory. However, a less exotic explanation of coordination is also available based on best-responding to uniform randomisation. We test the team reasoning explanation...

We apply propensity score matching (PSM) to the estimation of household motor fuel purchase quantities, to tackle problems caused by infrequency of purchase. The results are compared to an alternative, regression-based, imputation strategy using the infrequency of purchase model (IPM). Using...