Experimental Economics Article on the FT

Tim Hartford's Undercover Economist column on the Arts & Weekend section of the Financial Times this week (Jan. 5, 2007) dealt with experimental economics. Experimental economists use the kinds of experiments run by psychologists and biologists to test out hypothesis and theories in economics and other branches of the social sciences. The most interesting part of the article was the idea of using the virtual world of online games as "a social-science supercollider." Anyone who has played some variant of Sims should see the potential in that type of experimental platform for economists.