The work of Friedrich Von Hayek contains several testable predictions about the nature of market processes. Vernon Smith termed the most important one the 'Hayek Hypothesis': equilibrium prices and the gains from trade can be achieved in the presence of diffuse, decentralized information, and in...

Vernon Smith (2008) argues that his experimental work is a demonstration of Friedrich Hayek's ‘ecological rationalism'. This assertion is difficult to square with Hayek's apparent dismissal of the possibility of demonstrating ‘ecological rationality' in a laboratory (documented in Smith...

This article discusses the problem of "thought experiments" in Austrian economics and takes as a starting point Lawrence Moss’ argument on the divide between the older Austrian economists - for whom thought experiments were crucial - and the new generation that, in Moss’ view, has...

Teaching Austrian economics to graduate students is an important part of spreading the ideas of Austrian economics throughout the profession. In the classroom, it is important for graduate students to not only master the ideas of Austrian economics but also to train them to become productive...

We report an experiment contrasting the impacts of a tax and a cap rule in a single-product market with two privately-informed buyers. We discuss the effects on choice set and consumer surplus. The policy environment varies across treatments. With regulations, we aim to halve the size of the...

We experimentally test the effect of enforceable non-compete clauses on working efforts. The employee can invest into the probability of making a profitable innovation. After a successful innovation (Win) the employee may want to leave the firm (Shift) whereas after an innovation failure (Lose)...

This paper experimentally studies the role of search cost in duopoly markets where sellers may be able to coordinate pricing decisions. We vary the level of search cost and whether sellers can communicate. While we find that consumers are more likely to invest in search when cost is reduced, we...

Understanding what determines the extent to which economic agents tell the truth to their regulating authority is of major economic importance, from banking to environmental protection. To this end, we examine truth-telling of German commercial fishermen in an artefactual field experiment. Their...

I exploit the amendment to the German Trade and Crafts Code in 2004 as a natural experiment to asses the causal effects of this reform on the probabilities of being self-employed and of transition into and out of self-employment using repeated cross sections (2002-2006) of German Microcensus...

Much of the legal debate over privacy is based around abstract notions from legal philosophy concerning fundamental rights. However, there is a growing body of evidence from the social sciences regarding privacy-related individual and institutional behaviour. Some of these results are...