Values elicited from open-ended real experiments

The idea that preferences are only revealed by real incentives is deeply em bedded in economists' worldview. Consequently, evidence from hypothetical e xperiments has not readily permeated economic thinking. One method for dete rmining whether hypothetical experiments provide useful information about p references is to compare them to similar real-goods experiments. This study looks at responses elicited by three real experiments. We examin e the proportion of responses that meet a series of criteria that range fro m a broad appeal of plausibility to a narrow restriction based on quasi-con cavity of preferences. We argue that these proportions are unreasonably low . (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.