American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Do Natural Field Experiments Afford Researchers More or Less Control Than Laboratory Experiments?
American Economic Review
vol. 105,
no. 5, May 2015
(pp. 462–66)
Abstract
A commonly held view is that laboratory experiments provide researchers with more "control" than natural field experiments. This paper explores how natural field experiments can provide researchers with more control than laboratory experiments. While laboratory experiments provide researchers with a high degree of control in the environment which participants agree to be experimental subjects, when participants systematically opt out of laboratory experiments, the researcher's ability to manipulate certain variables is limited. In contrast, natural field experiments bypass the participation decision altogether due to their covertness, and they allow for a potentially more diverse participant pool within the market of interest.Citation
Al-Ubaydli, Omar, and John A. List. 2015. "Do Natural Field Experiments Afford Researchers More or Less Control Than Laboratory Experiments?" American Economic Review, 105 (5): 462–66. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20151013Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C91 Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual
- C93 Field Experiments