Designing and Running Experiments

The course Designing and Running Experiments (DRE) walks you through the basic methodology of experimental research and also teaches you how to use an online tool to develop and run your experiments. The block lasts 3 days and is worth 2 ECTS.


Firstly, we will discuss the basic principles of experiments and experimental games.


The second day is dedicated to experiments' internal and external validity, i.e., the certainty that the tested relationship is not influenced by unknown variables and the extent to which those findings can be applied to other situations.


On the third day, we will take you through the process of pre-registration and show you how to write instructions for participants.


See more information below.

Lecturers

Jan Hausfeld

Amsterdam School of Economics
Netherlands

Course details

Schedule


The course consists of 18 hours of lectures. Each lecture lasts 60 minutes. Morning lectures start at 9:00 and finish at 12:40. Afternoon lectures start at 14:00 and finish at 17:40. The break after each lecture lasts 20 minutes. All times are in Central European Summer Time (CEST).


Topics


Day 1 – Introduction to laboratory experiments and randomized control trials


- Life cycle of an experiment

- Basic principles of laboratory experiments and RCTs

- Basic experimental games


Day 2 – Validity


- Internal validity (selection of participants, sample size, confounds in treatment, the role of anonymity)

- External validity (stake sizes, WEIRD subject pools)


Day 3 – Instructions and pre-registration


- Writing the experimental instructions

- Pre-registration of an experimental study



ECTS requirements


To obtain 2 ECTS, you must attend the lectures and take a final exam based on lectures and selected chapters of mandatory literature. The exam will be in the form of an online test and will take place after the end of the program.


Literature


- Field, A., & Hole, G. (2003). How to design and report experiments. Sage.

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