Lab Labor: What Can Labor Economists Learn from the Lab?

Gary Charness and Peter Kuhn

No 4941, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper surveys the contributions of laboratory experiments to labor economics. We begin with a discussion of methodological issues: why (and when) is a lab experiment the best approach; how do laboratory experiments compare to field experiments; and what are the main design issues? We then summarize the substantive contributions of laboratory experiments to our understanding of principal-agent interactions, social preferences, union-firm bargaining, arbitration, gender differentials, discrimination, job search, and labor markets more generally.

Keywords: laboratory experiments; principal-agent theory; personnel economics; labor economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 111 pages
Date: 2010-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-hpe and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (32)

Published - published in: O. Ashenfelter and D. Card (eds.), Handbook of Labor Economics, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2011

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Related works:
Chapter: Lab Labor: What Can Labor Economists Learn from the Lab? (2011)
Working Paper: Lab Labor: What Can Labor Economists Learn from the Lab? (2010)
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