TY  - JOUR
AU  - Levitt,Steven D.
AU  - List,John A.
TI  - Field Experiments in Economics:  The Past, The Present, and The Future
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14356
PY  - 2008
Y2  - September 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14356
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14356.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven D. Levitt
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
Tel: 773/834-1862
Fax: 773/702-8490
E-Mail: slevitt@midway.uchicago.edu

John List
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 301/405-1288
Fax: 301/314-9091
E-Mail: jlist@uchicago.edu
AB  - This study presents an overview of modern field experiments and their usage in economics.  Our discussion focuses on three distinct periods of field experimentation that have influenced the economics literature.  The first might well be thought of as the dawn of "field" experimentation: the work of Neyman and Fisher, who laid the experimental foundation in the 1920s and 1930s by conceptualizing randomization as an instrument to achieve identification via experimentation with agricultural plots.  The second, the large-scale social experiments conducted by government agencies in the mid-twentieth century, moved the exploration from plots of land to groups of individuals.  More recently, the nature and range of field experiments has expanded, with a diverse set of controlled experiments being completed outside of the typical laboratory environment.  With this growth, the number and types of questions that can be explored using field experiments has grown tremendously.  After discussing these three distinct phases, we speculate on the future of field experimental methods, a future that we envision including a strong collaborative effort with outside parties, most importantly private entities.
ER  -