Behavioral Economics in a Laboratory-Based Token Economy

描述（由申请人提供）：在过去的几十年里，行为研究中最重要的理论进步之一是将经济学和心理学的观点结合起来，也就是所谓的行为经济学。行为经济学的一个主要观点是，行为总是受到约束——有限的收入、有限的选择、关于世界的不完整和不确定的信息——我们的理论需要考虑这些因素。广义的行为经济学是一种理解这些约束如何影响行为的方法。近年来，它也被卓有成效地应用于广泛的健康相关问题，包括上瘾、赌博和肥胖，仅举几例。因此，行为经济学不仅具有理论意义，而且具有实践意义。本研究的目的是开发一个基于实验室的系统，从经济学的角度来检查行为。拟议研究的核心是一个代币经济系统，在这个系统中，代币可以赚取、积累和交换其他商品。这种行为很容易用经济学术语来看待：代币的生产类似于工资，汇率相当于商品的价格，交换机会的生产相当于采购成本，代币的积累相当于储蓄，代币交换其他商品相当于支出。因此，代币系统提供了一个可控的、易于分析的环境，在这个环境中，可以探索行为和经济变量之间的相互作用。这样的系统能够在多个分析层次上详细测量经济行为（例如，劳动、消费、偏好、储蓄），并与广泛的经济变量（例如，价格、工资、利息、通货膨胀）相关。简而言之，代币系统为行为经济学的基本概念提供了一个实验测试平台。目前的研究以广泛的动物研究为基础，在一个小型的、自给自足的经济体系中使用鸽子作为工人。这使实验控制最大化，并允许系统地操纵经济分析中有用的变量。同时，代币系统仿照基于货币的经济系统。这使得以前从未在实验室中研究过的广泛的经济变量触手可及，并由此为经济行为的实验分析提供了令人兴奋的新可能性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Among the most significant theoretical advances in the study of behavior over the past few decades has been the integration of economic and psychological perspectives-what has come to be called behavioral economics. A chief insight of behavioral economics is that behavior is always subject to constraints-restricted income, limited options, incomplete and uncertain information about the world-and that our theories need to take such factors into account. Behavioral economics, broadly construed, is an approach to understanding how these constraints impact behavior. It has also been fruitfully applied in recent years to a wide range of health- related problems, including addictions, gambling, and obesity, to name just a few. Behavioral economics is thus of practical as well as theoretical importance. The aim of the present research is to develop a laboratory-based system for examining behavior from an economic perspective. The centerpiece of the proposed research is a token-economic system, in which tokens are earned, accumulated, and exchanged for other commodities. Such behavior is readily viewed in economic terms: the production of tokens is akin to a wage, exchange rate to the price of a good, the production of exchange opportunities to procurement costs, accumulation of tokens to savings, and exchange of tokens for other goods to expenditures. As such, token systems provide a controlled and analytically tractable environment in which to explore interactions between behavior and economic variables. Such systems enable detailed measurement of economic behavior (e.g., labor, consumption, preference, savings) on multiple levels of analysis and in relation to a wide range of economic variables (e.g., prices, wages, interest, inflation). A token system, in short, provides an experimental test bed for fundamental concepts in behavioral economics. Building on an extensive body of animal research, the present research uses pigeons as workers in a miniature and self-contained economy. This maximizes experimental control, and permits systematic manipulation of variables useful in an economic analysis. At the same time, the token system is modeled after monetary-based economic systems. This brings within reach a wide range of economic variables never before studied in the laboratory, and with it, exciting new possibilities for an experimental analysis of economic behavior.