Abstract
This chapter addressed the determinants of the formation and development of experimental economics. Its first part discussed the widely accepted definition of economics proposed by Robbins and its consequences to the methodology of economics. Emphasis was placed on those which referred to the applicability of experiments as a method to expand knowledge on economics. The second part of the chapter presented the short history of experimental economics. When describing the first experiments, the development path of experimental economics was carefully analysed, and emphasis was put on its contribution to the theories of both micro- and macroeconomics. The chapter is concluded with a brief summary pointing to the relevance of experimental economics.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This definition described economics by indicating a method of analysis rather than pointing to the subject scope. The second method addressed by Backhouse and Medema (2009) was defined by the authors as “classificatory”.
- 3.
It resulted mostly from the former perception of the subject and method of political economics developed by Mill (1966), which in its a priori approach reduced human beings solely to those aspects of their activities which were related to accumulating wealth.
- 4.
It has become the foundation for standardisation of rationality of actions as the following axioms: completeness (order), reflexivity, transitivity and monotonicity of preferences (Varian 1997, 66–78). These axioms allowed formalisation of economic considerations and have become a foundation for constructing consistent logical models of economic reality, disregarding, however, the real motives behind choices.
- 5.
This distinction between the two paths to scientific advancement was first made in the seventeenth century by Descartes and Bacon and has been used ever since.
- 6.
Robbinsian definition of economics underlying the formalisation of the theory of economics contributed to the so-called economic imperialism which “is the claim of some economists that the methodology of neoclassical economics has superior scientific qualities and should be adopted by most or all social sciences” (Rothschild 2008). This term was first used by Ralph William Souter in 1933 in response to L. Robbins’s essay.
- 7.
They were named “meta-axioms” and have become a foundation for all the approaches within mainstream economics (Arnsparger and Varoufakis 2008, 19).
- 8.
The authors, when revising the evolution of the theories of economics from the times of Ricardo and Smith to contemporary writings, reveal the reasons behind “desocialisation” and “dehistoricisation” of this science (Milonakis and Fine 2009). For more on this topic, see also (Jackson 2013).
- 9.
According to Schmidt, however, the experiment was used by Chamberlin as an educational tool revealing imperfections of the neoclassical theory of prices rather than as a strict method to validate the theory (Schmidt 2009).
- 10.
A more recent review of the literature on this topic and description of certain results of such experiments is offered by Assenza et al. (2014).
- 11.
Wojtyna believes it resulted from considering certain unorthodox concepts as part of mainstream economics (Wojtyna 2009).
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Miłaszewicz, D. (2016). Origins of Experimental Economics. In: Nermend, K., Łatuszyńska, M. (eds) Selected Issues in Experimental Economics. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28419-4_2
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