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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics pp 829–836Cite as

Experimental Law and Economics

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Abstract

Experimental law and economics is the newest methodological development in law and economics research. Yet a lot of researchers – old and young – are not familiar with the foundations of the method. This may lead to skepticism. In this entry, I elaborate on the purpose of experiments and introduce building blocks of the method that tend to distinguish experimental law and economics from experimental methods in other disciplines. Moreover, I shortly discuss concerns about the external validity of the results obtained in a laboratory experiment. Finally, I introduce and invalidate the most common criticisms against experiments that most often advanced by scholars unfamiliar with the method and the discipline. As knowledge about the method's foundations is further spread, experimental law and economics will substantially contribute advancing the research frontier of the economic theory of law.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Advanced Studies in Law and Economics (CASLE), Ghent University Law School, Ghent, Belgium

    Sven Hoeppner

  2. Guest Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany

    Sven Hoeppner

Authors
  1. Sven Hoeppner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sven Hoeppner .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Hoeppner, S. (2019). Experimental Law and Economics. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_172

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