In this course, we will discuss how to do economics experiments "right" and show why "the way one does an experiment is incredibly
important", as a famous behavioural economists once noted. We thus will talk about the experimental method in economics (and how it
differs from methods in other social sciences) and will do so both by reading widely cited articles and by doing selected experiments. We
shall discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the experimental methods relative to other empirical social science methods such as
econometrics, and will document how it can be used to explore the robustness of the "homo oeconomicus" assumption of a rational, selfish
decision maker used in many economic models. We will find that economic theory does a good job in many applications but that there are
also important behavioural deviations from the model of “homo oeconomicus”. The topics covered in this course include: individual
decision making and risky choice, bounded rationality, biases and heuristics, endowment effect, overconfidence, bargaining and
negotiations, cooperation, provision of public goods, punishment, coordination problems, competition and strategic market behaviour, and
auctions, bidding and reputation. The tutorial will demonstrate some of the issues by the use of class room experiments; the results of
those build the basis for in-class student discussion.