Ananish Chaudhuri's Behavioral & Experimental Economics Page
Ananish Chaudhuri's Behavioral & Experimental Economics Page
I am an assistant professor of Economics, in the Department of Economics, located in the College of Business and Economics, at Washington State University. During the 2001-02 academic year I will be visiting Wellesley College, in Wellesley, MA.
If you wish to go to my personal home page, you can do so by clicking here. In case you are interested, you can look at my curriculum vitae here.
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Here is a website where you can play the Prisoner's Dilemma Game. Based on
our discussions in class you should fint it interesting to check out
the Prisoner's
Dilemma Game. What strategy is your computerized opponent playing?
Below I provide a series of articles which address issues discussed in class (and some that are meant for fun). I would like to express my thanks to Bill Harbaugh, of the University of Oregon. I found many of the articles through his website. Thanks Bill.
Are Economists Different, and If So, Why?, by John Carter and Michael Irons, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Spring 1991, Vol. 5. No. 2, pp. 171-177.
Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation?", by Robert, Frank, Thomas Gilovich and Dennis Regan, Journal of Economics Perspectives, Vol. 7, No. 2, Spring 1993, pp. 159-171.
Does Studying Economics Discourage Cooperation? Watch What we do, not what we say or How we Play, by Anthony M. Yezer, Robert S. Goldfarb, Paul J. Poppen, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10, No. 1. Spring 1996, pp. 177-186.
Theory, Experiments and Economics, by Vernon Smith, Journal of Economic Perspectives,1989, Vol 3(1), pp. 151-169.
Choice Under Uncertainty: Problems Solved and Unsolved, by Mark Machina, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 1987, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 121-154.
Anomalies: Intertemporal Choice, by George Loewenstein, Richard Thaler, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1989, pp. 181-193
Puzzles, by Barry Nalebuff, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 1987, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 157-163
Classroom Games: Understanding Bayes' Rule, by Charles Holt and Lisa Anderson, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 10., No. 2, Spring 1996, pp. 179-187.
Anomalies: The Ultimatum Game, by Richard H. Thaler, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 4. (Autumn, 1988), pp. 195-206.
Bargaining and Market Behavior in Jerusalem, Ljubljana, Pittsburgh, and Tokyo: An Experimental Study, by Alvin E. Roth, Vesna Prasnikar, Masahiro Okuno-Fujiwara, Shmuel Zamir, The American Economic Review, Vol. 81, No. 5.(Dec., 1991), pp. 1068-1095
Anomalies: Cooperation, by Robyn M. Dawes, Richard H. Thaler, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 3. (Summer, 1988), pp. 187-197.
Anomalies: Ultimatums, Dictators and Manners, by Colin Camerer and Richard H. Thaler, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 2. (Spring, 1995), pp. 209-219.
Anomalies: The Winner's Curse, by Richard H. Thaler, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 2, No. 1. (Winter, 1988), pp. 191-202.
Auctions and Bidding, by Paul Milgrom, Journal of Economics Perspectives, Vol 3(3), Summer 1989, pp. 3-22.
Equivalence of Auction Forms: Magic on the Internet, forthcoming, American Economic Review.
How Auctions Work for Wine and Art (in Symposia: Auctions), by Orley Ashenfelter, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 3, No. 3. (Summer, 1989), pp. 23-36.
Unravelling in Guessing Games: An Experimental Study" by Rosemarie Nagel, American Economic Review, Vol. 85, No. 85, pp. 1313-1326
Anomalies: Preference Reversals Amos Tversky, Richard H. Thaler, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 4, No. 2. (Spring, 1990), pp. 201-211.
Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias, by Daniel Kahneman,Jack L. Knetsch, Richard H. Thaler, The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 5, No. 1. (Winter, 1991), pp. 193-206
Paul Strand and I, along with Barry Sopher of Rutgers University have been working on the impact of ontogenetic experiences on altruism. Here is a copy of our working paper Ontogenetic Experiences, Contingency Detection and Altruism in MS-Word format. You can find a copy of the instructions to this paper here.
You can find a brief description of the work I am doing with Andrew Schotter of NYU and Barry Sopher of Rutgers on learning and cognitive development on Andrew Schotter's Home Page. You can also read about Andy Schotter and Barry Sopher's fascinating research agenda on a Lamarckian view of evolution on that page as well.
You can read my paper The Ratchet Principle in a Principal Agent Game with Unknown Costs: An Experimental Analysis, which appeared in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 37(3), November 1998, pp. 291-304.
Here is a paper on a simple way to carry out the Trust Game in the classroom. A Simple Investment Game Experiment for the Classroom.
In the course of teaching our class on behavioral economics, we have used quite a few experiments. Most of these are well known in the literature. We have often modified the original experiment to suit our own particular purposes. Sometimes simplifying the instrutions to make them easier to carry out manually in the classroom. The instructions to some of these experiments appear below.
Trust Game
Experiment.(We deviate from Berg et al's original design by having
every player play as both a SENDER and a RECEIVER).
Ultimatum Game.
(Again we reverse roles by having each player play as a PROPOSER and a
RESPONDER).
Minimum Game
Experiment. (This is the Coordination Experiment we did in class.
Based on the paper by Van Huyck, Battalio and Beil in American Economic
Review, 1991.)
One of the most noted proponents of experimental methods in Economics is Al Roth at Harvard University. His page has a number of interesting links to Classroom Experiments as well as links to home pages of other experimental economists.Al Roth is the co-editor of the Handbook of Experimental Economics, along with John Kagel, of the University of Pittsburgh, which has other noted experimental economists as well.
Vernon Smith, is another stalwart. Smith established theEconomic Science Laboratory, which conducts many fascinating experiments, at the University of Arizona, which has other well-known experimental economists.
Andrew Schotter, of New York University, is the President of the Experimental Economics Group (Economic Science Association). The ESA publishes its own journal Experimental Economics.
A number of faculty at theDivision of Humanities and Social Sciences at Caltech are very well known. They include Thomas Palfrey, Richard McKelvey, Colin Camerer and John Ledyard, among others. You might also like to check out McKelvey's Gambit Program
If you are looking for some simple experiments that can be carried out in the classroom to illustrate key economic principles, then check out Classroom Experonomics, which is a newsletter published by Greg Delemeester, at Marietta College, and John Neral, at Frostburg State University.
Those interested in issues of altruism and reciprocity should, of course, know about Robert Axelrod of Yale University and his work. His recent book is about the Complexity of Cooperation. Also check out his earlier work on the Evolution of Cooperation.
For those of you who were intrigued by the Public Goods experiments that we did in class, James Andreoni, at the University of Wisconsin, has contributed a lot to our understanding of such phenomena.
As regards our discussion of Coordination Games, take a look at the Home Page of John Van Huyck, at Texas A&M.
Researchers in other disciplines are interested in behavioral economics as well. Howard Rachlin has been doing fascinating work with repeated play Prisoner's Dilemma Games along with colleagues in Experimental Psychology, at the SUNY-Stonybrook.
Economists and others have long been fascinated by the writings of Richard Dawkins
For those of you wondering "What is Game Theory?", David Levine's Page at UCLA may have some ansnwers.
For those of you (from a psych background) intersted in the economic behavior of children, you might want to take a look at the work of Bill Harbaugh, especially his discussion about simple experiments you can carry out with children.
Check out theStanford University Game Theory Link.
There is a Game Theory Society.
Ken Binmore has a page on Economic Learning and Social Evolution".
On a somewhat different but still related area, Hal Varian has a written a book called Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy".
This page will be perpetually 
, since we will be putting more and more stuff on here
as it relates to our research and interests in behavioral economics.
Last updated: May 01, 2001.
For questions or comments, 
Ananish Chaudhuri
