CDR: Experimental Economics (was Re: Edupage, October 2 2000)

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 5:44 PM -0600 on 10/2/00, EDUCAUSE wrote:


> HOW ECONOMISTS HELP PREDICT BEHAVIOR ONLINE
> Experimental economics, which has been long been viewed as
> impractical, is now being deemed relevant due to the rise of the
> Web.  Experimental economists use data to predict market
> behavior, and are increasingly attracting attention from U.S.
> business schools, the FCC, and businesses such as IBM and
> Hewlett-Packard.  IBM has opened an experimental-economics lab,
> which Robert Baseman, IBM's senior research manager, says will
> help clients develop and deploy their e-markets.  University of
> Arizona professor Vernon Smith, who uses an experimental
> economics game to study trust relationships, says that such
> exercises connect to IBM's e-business focus.  Smith, who spoke at
> the dedication of IBM's experimental lab, says that the anonymity
> of the Internet and e-commerce calls for reputation-building
> systems to enable trust-based trading.
> (Wall Street Journal, 02 October 2000)

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'