the experimental economy consists in trying out the individual and/or collective economic behaviors, and analyzing the results statistically. It is about a science under development, rewarded in 2002 by two prizes winner for the “Nobel Prize” for economy, Vernon Smith and Daniel Kahneman, pioneers in the application to the economic scene of the experimental methods used in Psychologie.

Object, methods

The object of the discipline is to test the assumptions of behavior of the economic models. The study in laboratory makes it possible to isolate the elements from the individual decision .

The repetition of the experiment makes it possible to draw some the robust conclusions, with this nuance close the behaviors in vivo can be subjected to more external interferences than those in vitro .

Results

When the theory is refuted by the experiments two explanations can be given:

• On the one hand, the individuals even make choices in limited Rationalité of the irrational choices (whereas the current theory supposes the rationality of the actors in general). For example, the application of the Théorème of Bayes is source of difficulty for the individuals.
• In addition, the individuals integrate elements of decision not (still) taken into account by the theory (for example, the benevolence can lead the individuals to behave differently that the balance of Nash does not predict it).

See too