Experimental Research: Methodology, Design and Applications in the Lab and the Field

Short Bio Wolfgang Luhan is Assistant Professor of economics at the Ruhr-University Bochum’s Economics department and Director of the Bochum Lab for Experimental Economics (RUBex). His research focus lies on behavioral (macro) economics, bargaining situations and markets. He has been doing experimental research since 2004 and has taught numerous classes on experimental research methods. http://goo.gl/gJ0ITc Prerequisite knowledge Note from the Academic Convenors to prospective participants: by registering to this course, you certify that you possess the prerequisite knowledge that is requested to be able to follow this course. The instructor will not teach again these prerequisite items. If you doubt whether you possess that knowledge to a sufficient extent, we suggest you contact the instructor before you proceed to your registration. Basic empirical methods, research design, deductive reasoning, and strategic thinking. Knowledge of standard game-theoretic concepts is helpful but no precondition. Short course outline The course offers an introduction to the methods and techniques of experimental empirical research. It pursues the agenda of providing the theoretical knowledge to find a research question, deduce hypotheses and design an experiment. Hence, the focus will be on general methodological and design issues, rather than surveying the existing experimental literature. We will follow a learning-by-doing approach, in which students will frequently participate in experiments that demonstrate abstraction, formation of hypothesis and approaches to test them along with interactive lectures. The last part of the course will be devoted to implementation where we will look at the procedures and regularities of lab, field and survey experiments.