Development of Instrumentation for Institutional Process Design and Laboratory Testing in Economics and Political Science

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Charles Plott博士将购买设备来扩大和发展他的实验经济学实验室。这包括35台奔腾90 16MB、500MBHD电脑、显示器、高速调制解调器、工作站、网络服务器和相关设备。他还将聘请计算机编程人员开发软件，这些软件将分发给其他教授经济学和从事实验经济学研究的机构。在这个相对较新的经济学分支中，研究人员在受控的实验室条件下创建实验市场，并允许受试者参与其中。金钱被用作一种激励，促使人们做出有意义的决定。正如普罗特博士所指出的，“支持在经济学和政治学中使用实验方法的逻辑，与支持在任何科学分支中使用实验方法的逻辑是一样的。”诀窍在于，当真正的目标是理解复杂得多的东西时，识别并理解对非常简单和特殊的案例的研究是如何提供帮助的。“这项研究，以及国家科学基金会的部分资助，是为了实现几个目标。首先，它允许经济学家评估广泛持有的经济假设的有效性，如供求规律。其次，它允许应用实验方法来解决当前紧迫的问题。例如，普罗特博士和他的团队曾为交通部和其他几个政府机构进行过研究。它们就诸如机场着陆时段的分配、污染许可市场的管制和空间站资源的管理等问题提供了指导。最后，这笔拨款将允许开发可用于教育和研究的模拟和教学软件。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Charles Plott will purchase equipment to expand and develop his experimental economics laboratory. This includes 35 pentium 90 16MB, 500MBHD computers, monitors, high speed modems, workstations, a network server and related equipment. He will also hire computer programming staff to develop software which will be distributed to other institutions which teach economics and engage in experimental economics research. In this relatively new branch of economics, researchers create experimental markets in controlled laboratory conditions and allow subjects to participate in them. Money is used as an incentive to evoke responses that accompany meaningful decisions. As Dr. Plott notes, `The logic that supports the use of experimental methods in economics and political science is the same logic that supports the use of experimental methods in any branch of science. The trick is to identify and understand how the study of very simple and special cases can help when the real goal is to understand something that is vastly more complex.` This research, and the NSF grant which partially supports it, serves to accomplish several goals. First, it allows economists to evaluate the validity of widely held economic assumptions such as the laws of supply and demand. Secondly, it permits the application of experimental approaches to the solution of pressing present day problems. Dr. Plott and his group have, for example, conducted studies for the Department of Transportation and several other government agencies. They have provided guidance on issues such as the allocation of airport landing slots, regulation of the pollution permit market and the management of space station resources. Finally, this grant will allow the development of simulation and teaching software which can be used for both education and research.