Agricultural economists' use of classroom economic experiments

Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Aug 2003 by Barnett, Barry J, Kriesel, Warren

Results indicate that respondents (who were familiar with classroom economic experiments) averaged teaching 2.2 courses per year. Table 4 describes respondents' use of classroom economic experiments. In general, experiments are used more in undergraduate and split-level courses than in graduate courses. Respondents reported using classroom economic experiments in 34.1% of their undergraduate and split-level courses and in 18.4% of their graduate courses. For 15.5% of undergraduate and split-level courses and 13.2% of graduate courses, respondents indicated that they were not currently using classroom economic experiments but had in the past. For over 50% of undergraduate and split-level courses and over 68% of graduate courses, respondents reported having never used classroom economic experiments.

Table 5 breaks down responses about the use of classroom experiments by average class size. Interestingly, courses in which respondents are currently using classroom economic experiments have larger average numbers of students than courses in which respondents are not currently using experiments. This is true of undergraduate and split-level courses as well as graduate courses. This result is consistent with the responses about class size reported in Table 3.

For undergraduate and split-level courses, Table 6 presents responses about the use of classroom economic experiments by course subject matter. Table 7 contains the same information for graduate courses. For undergraduate and split-level courses, experiments are used most often to teach microeconomic theory, marketing and trade, and natural resource or environmental economics. The results are similar at the graduate level, with experiments being used to teach microeconomic theory and natural resource or environmental economics. At the graduate level, experiments are not widely used to teach marketing or trade. They are used to teach agribusiness, which was not the case at the undergraduate level.

Subset: Current or Past Users of Classroom Economic Experiments

Of the 180 respondents who indicated familiarity with classroom economic experiments, 104 indicated that, for the classes they currently teach, they either currently use economic experiments or have done so in the past. This group was asked to identify the specific economic concepts that they had taught using economic experiments. Those responses are shown in Table 8. Note that slightly over half of these respondents indicated that they had used classroom economic experiments to demonstrate the concept of price discovery and market clearing in perfect competition. The double-oral auction experiment, or variations thereof, is most likely being used to demonstrate this concept. Experiments were being used by at least 25 respondents to teach each of the following concepts: public goods, common property resources, and imperfect competition. Symmetric game experiments are widely used to teach each of these concepts. At least 20 respondents indicated using experiments to teach risk and principal-agent concepts. The concepts are generally taught using versions of asymmetric game experiments.