Experimental Economics

This session presents new experimental evidence on the provision of public goods and the allocation of common-pool resources. Field and laboratory experiments are used to assess new potential strategies for achieving environmental and welfare gains through alternative environmental policy designs with explicit consideration of behavioral confounding factors. Topical focuses include greenhouse gases and irrigation.

For all agricultural producers, but particularly those with smaller operations, production uncertainty and marginalized bargaining power present significant hurdles to improving profitability. The papers in this session explore these issues through experiments conducted with agricultural producers. Both laboratory and field experiments are used to assess the impact of contract enforcement policy designs on economic outcomes and the role of uncertainty on farmer capital investments and crop insurance purchases.