Experimental Finance

Experiments are an underused method in finance and have natural advantages for behavioral finance. Experiments can provide a useful means to circumvent several common econometric issues such as omitted variables, unobserved variables, and self-selection. Experiments can extend the theoretical models they test by relaxing various assumptions or examining settings that are too complex to be addressed analytically. Whether or not theoretical predictions are clearly known in advance, experiments are most informative when they rely on controlled manipulation, which is the source of their inferential power