A theorist's view of experiments

The pager springs from a position that economic theory is an abstract inves tigation of the concepts and considerations involved in real life economic decision making rather than a tool for predicting or describing real behavi or. It is argued that when experimental economics is motivated by theory, i t should not look to verify the predictions of theory but instead should fo cus on verifying that the considerations contained in the economic model ar e sound and in common use. It is argued that when theory is motivated by ex periments, the theorist should not be hasty in adopting new functional form s but should try to identify the basic psychological themes which are revea led exposed by the experiment. Finally, some critical comments on the metho dology of experimental economics are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B .V. All rights reserved.