A Laboratory Experimental Investigation of Institutional Influences on Political Economic Processes

该项目继续开发和应用广泛的政治经济学领域的实验室实验方法，以及管理相互依赖和不断变化的系统的行为的原则，这些系统是在早期国家科学基金拨款下开始的。将更加注重复杂系统的相互依存和动态行为，以及促进有效利用信息和减少不确定性的新体制安排。该项目将发挥领导作用，利用实验方法作为目前正在审议的各种体制改革的试验台，以应对全球环境变化带来的挑战。该项目还将有助于我们理解在具有不可逆性和可能对子孙后代造成灾难性后果的不确定情况下作出决定的方式。研究项目可分为五类：1)主要关注经济过程活动的相互依存关系的研究项目；2)信息发挥核心作用的研究项目；3)更狭隘地关注市场均衡特性的研究项目；4)涉及新机构“测试”的项目；以及5)实验性技术开发的项目。对实验技术发展的研究特别令人兴奋，因为它将使一个复杂的实验系统能够支持非常广泛的实验，为广大研究人员免费提供。根据先前的赠款，为计算机化的实验室市场系统制作并分发了一份手册和软盘。该程序包包括用于创建和执行实验的程序、用于查看和处理数据的程序以及用于培训对象的程序。技术开发工作现在将转向带有政治因素的过程。由于政治往往是关于制度和程序的选择，任何新的软件都应该能够促进可以进行制度演变的实验。

This project continues the development and application of laboratory experimental methods in the broad field of political economy and on the principles that govern the behavior of interdependent and changing systems begun under earlier NSF grants. There will be an intensified focus on the interdependence and dynamic behavior of complicated systems, and on new institutional arrangements that facilitate the efficient use of information and the reduction of uncertainty. This project will play a leadership role in using experimental methods as testbeds for the types of institutional changes currently under consideration as a response to the challenges posed by global environmental change. This project will also contribute to our understanding of the way decisions are made under uncertainty with irreversibilities and potentially catastrophic consequences for future generations. Research projects can be grouped into five categories: 1) those that focus primarily on the interdependence of activities of economic processes; 2) those in which information plays a central role; 3) those that focus more narrowly on the properties of equilibria that occur in markets; 4) those that involve the "testbedding" of new institutions; and 5) experimental technology development. The research on experimental technology development is especially exciting because it will make a sophisticated experimental system capable of supporting a very wide range of experiments freely available for a broad audience of researchers. Under the previous grant a manual and diskette were produced and disseminated for a computerized laboratory market system. The package included programs for creating and executing experiments, programs for viewing and processing data, and programs for training subjects. The technology development effort will now turn to processes with political elements. Since politics is frequently about the choices of institutions and processes, any new software should be capable of facilitating experiments in which institutional evolution can take place.