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Blaming the messenger: Notes on the current state of experimental economics

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Listed author(s):
  • Eckel, Catherine
  • Gintis, Herbert

Abstract

Binmore and Shaked (this issue) criticize Fehr and Schmidt's (1999) model of inequality aversion. We present a considerable body of experimental research supporting the inequality aversion motive. Binmore and Shaked also urge experimentalists to adopt "a more skeptical attitude when far-reaching claims about human behavior are extrapolated from very slender data." It is true that experimental findings indicate that the standard neoclassical model fails to predict a considerable range of strategic behaviors widely observed in the laboratory, particularly under conditions where normative behavior is prevalent in every-day social life. This is indeed a "far-reaching claim," but one amply justified by an impressive and constantly growing body of evidence from experiments.

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Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Volume (Year): 73 (2010)
Issue (Month): 1 (January)
Pages: 109-119

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Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:73:y:2010:i:1:p:109-119
Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo

Keywords: Inequality aversion Neoclassical theory Experimental economics;

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Cited by:

  1. Dorian Jullien, 2016. "Under Uncertainty, Over Time and Regarding Other People: Rationality in 3D," GREDEG Working Papers 2016-20, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), University of Nice Sophia Antipolis.
  2. Clark, Andrew E. & D'Ambrosio, Conchita, 2014. "Attitudes to Income Inequality: Experimental and Survey Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 8136, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  3. Philipp Doerrenberg & Andreas Peichl, 2013. "Progressive taxation and tax morale," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 293-316, June.
  4. Ken Binmore, 2010. "Social norms or social preferences?," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 9(2), pages 139-157, December.
  5. Herbert Gintis, 2011. "The future of behavioral game theory," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(2), pages 97-102, December.
  6. Tjøtta, Sigve, 2016. "You’ll never walk alone. An experimental study on receiving money," Working Papers in Economics 03/16, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
  7. Leif Brandes & Donja Darai, 2014. "The value of top-down communication for organizational performance," ECON - Working Papers 157, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
  8. Sanjit Dhami & Ali al-Nowaihi, 2017. "Dominance concepts for discrete Fehr-Schmidt preferences with a focus on income inequality," Discussion Papers in Economics 17/12, Department of Economics, University of Leicester.

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