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External validity in economic experiments: can students be used to approximate the behavior of farmers?

经济实验中的外部效度：可以用学生来模拟农民的行为吗？

基本信息

批准号：
388911356
负责人：
Dr. Sven Grüner
金额：
--
依托单位：
Professur Unternehmensführung im Agribusiness
依托单位国家：
德国
项目类别：
Research Grants
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
德国
起止时间：
2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/388911356?language=en
关键词：
External validity economic experiments students

项目摘要

External validity is one of the most crucial aspects in the meaningful interpretation of eco-nomic experiments. The critical question is which predictive power an experimentally observed behavior has for a particular real-world context and social group of interest. This is a poignant question because, for the sake of convenience, it has become common practice to use students as substitute experimental subjects. The robustness and meaningfulness of experimental studies, especially when conducted with students, can be impaired by a number of problems. The first one concerns the replicability of the behavioral effects that are observed in a sample of experimental subjects contingent on experimentally varied conditions. The second concern is whether the experimental design itself is suited for making experimental subjects reveal their true preferences, or whether distortions, such as a social desirability bias caused by insufficient incentives, linger. Given the widespread use of students as experimental subjects, a further concern is related to the transferability of results: what can we scientifically infer from the experimental behavior of the student population for the behavior of the social group of interest?Comprehensive methodological studies that address the generalizability of findings from economic experiments in the light of the entirety of these problems are scarce. With a view to the use of experiments in agricultural economics, no systematic studies are known that investigate the robustness and especially the transferability issue. Against this background, this project is aimed at finding out which contribution "robustness-promoting" approaches can make to a more informed interpretation of experimental findings. For one thing, we look at new empirical and statistical strategies for improving statistical inference, such as preregistering study designs, accounting for multiple testing problems, and carrying out power analyses and replications. With a view to experimental design, we furthermore study whether and how systematically varied incentives affect behavior. This is an especially interesting issue because experimental economists, contrary to experimental psychologists, contend that monetary incentives are needed to make experimental subjects reveal their true preferences.We use multi-period business simulation games, in which students and farmers alike run virtual farms and make production program decisions in two contexts, as experimental device to study the following questions: (1) Is there a gap, or how big is the gap, between students' and farmers' behavior contingent on systematically varied incentives? (2) Which factors can explain eventually observed behavioral differences between students and farmers? (3) Which contribution to external validity can be provided by new strategies such as the preregistration of studies, the consideration of multiple testing, and power analysis and replication?

外部效度是经济学实验意义解释中最关键的方面之一。关键的问题是，通过实验观察到的行为对特定的现实世界背景和感兴趣的社会群体具有何种预测力。这是一个尖锐的问题，因为为了方便起见，用学生作为替代实验对象已经成为一种常见的做法。实验研究的稳健性和意义，特别是在与学生进行实验研究时，可能会因为一些问题而受到影响。第一个问题涉及在实验条件不同的实验受试者样本中观察到的行为影响的可重复性。第二个担忧是，实验设计本身是否适合让实验对象透露他们的真实偏好，或者扭曲现象是否挥之不去，比如由于激励不足而导致的社会期望偏差。鉴于学生被广泛用作实验对象，另一个令人担忧的问题与结果的可转移性有关：我们可以从学生群体的实验行为中科学地推断出社会利益群体的行为？根据这些问题的整体来解决经济实验结果的概括性的综合方法论研究很少。为了在农业经济学中使用实验，目前还没有系统的研究来研究稳健性，特别是可转移性问题。在此背景下，本项目的目的是找出“促进稳健性”的方法可以对实验结果作出更知情的解释。首先，我们着眼于改进统计推断的新的经验和统计策略，例如预先注册研究设计，考虑多个测试问题，以及进行能力分析和复制。为了进行实验设计，我们进一步研究了系统变化的激励是否以及如何影响行为。这是一个特别有趣的问题，因为与实验心理学家相反，实验经济学家认为，需要货币激励来让实验对象展示他们真正的偏好。我们使用多阶段商业模拟游戏，其中学生和农民都经营虚拟农场，并在两种情况下做出生产计划决策，作为实验装置来研究以下问题：(1)是否存在差距，或者差距有多大，学生和农民之间的行为取决于系统不同的激励因素？(2)哪些因素可以解释最终观察到的学生和农民之间的行为差异？(3)新的策略，如预先注册研究，考虑多重测试，以及权力分析和复制，可以提供哪些对外部效度的贡献？