field experiments – Knowledge Problem

Epistemology and Synthetic Market Design: Examples from Ecosystem Services

1 Comment / Economic history, Environmental policy / By Lynne Kiesling

Some of the most illuminating work in market design lately has been in payment for ecosystem services (PES). These projects provide examples of the continuing relevance of institutions to economic and policy outcomes, and the importance of Elinor Ostrom’s work on the diversity of governance institutions in common-pool resources; despite criticisms leveled at synthetic markets, …

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Experimentation, Jim Manzi, and Regulation/deregulation

3 Comments / Economics, Regulation / By Lynne Kiesling

Lynne Kiesling Think consciously about a decision you contemplated recently. As you were weighing your options, how much did you really know that you could bring to bear, definitively, on your decision? Was the outcome pre-determined, or was it unknown to you? For most of the decision-making situations we confront regularly, we don’t have full …

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John List’s $10 Million Crazy Idea Field Experiment in Education

4 Comments / Economics, Education, Science / By Michael Giberson

Michael Giberson Bloomberg Markets Magazine has a feature on economist John List and his $10 million research project on education. Along the way we get an introduction to List’s work on field experiments in economics, a splash of lab-based economics back story, and the reaction of education specialists who think List’s project is wholly off …

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Easterly on the Civil War in Development Economics

Economics / By Michael Giberson

Michael Giberson William Easterly writes, “Few people outside academia realize how badly Randomized Evaluation has polarized academic development economists for and against.” That claim seems reasonable enough. I’d bet few people outside academia know what randomized evaluation is. Frankly, I’d bet you could survey economists on the floor of the upcoming American Economic Association meetings …

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