Award Abstract #0321310
Development of an Experimental Social Sciences Laboratory

NSF Org:	BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Initial Amendment Date:	August 5, 2003
Latest Amendment Date:	June 29, 2007
Award Number:	0321310
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Mark L. Weiss BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
Start Date:	August 15, 2003
Expires:	July 31, 2008 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$535603
Investigator(s):	George Akerlof akerlof@econ.berkeley.edu (Principal Investigator) Barbara Mellers (Co-Principal Investigator) Teck Ho (Co-Principal Investigator) John Morgan (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	University of California-Berkeley Sponsored Projects Office BERKELEY, CA 94704 510/642-8109
NSF Program(s):	MAJOR RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION
Field Application(s):
Program Reference Code(s):	OTHR, 0000
Program Element Code(s):	1189

ABSTRACT

This award provides funding for a 50-station Experimental Social Sciences Laboratory with the primary role of studying individual and group behavior. The main intellectual merit of the Lab is that it facilitates efforts to synthesize models of behavior that cut across traditional disciplinary lines-that is, the mission of the Lab is to foster interdisciplinary experiments drawn from across the social sciences. Previously, a division of labor has arisen between researchers developing theory in the area of individual and group behavior and those performing experiments. This division is anachronistic. One of the intellectual merits of the proposal is that it seeks to abolish this division by dramatically lowering the barriers to conducting experiments. The design of the Lab emphasizes maximum flexibility at minimum hassle so as to accommodate highly varied approaches to conducting experiments. The physical configuration of the lab stations will be highly mobile, and the computing environment will make it a Lab without wires. The Lab will be staffed with a full-time lab manager and part-time programmer so that the creativity of the researcher, and not administration tasks, is the binding constraint to research productivity. Together, this design approach provides a highly customizable setting for researchers across disciplines. Similarly, the Lab will develop web-based and highly flexible software for the implementation of experiments without the need for programming expertise on the part of researchers. This software development effort, which is already underway, will be done in collaboration with experts at HP Labs.

The Lab benefits the research lives of faculty at UC Berkeley as well as attracting visitors from other institutions from across all fields of the social sciences. An important part of these efforts to attract outside scholars centers on our development of a program to train young scholars in the field of behavioral economics in conjunction with a successful program in this area run out ofUC Berkeley under the auspices of the Russell Sage Foundation. In addition to research, the broader impact of the Lab will occur in the areas of education and application. The Lab would contribute to the education of graduate and undergraduate students by augmenting discussion of important findings relating to behavior with hand-on experience,' thus enriching their educational experience and giving them an additional tool when entering the labor force upon graduation. The results and fmdings of the Lab are likely to have important market and policy implications which might come to be incorporated in practice.

UC Berkeley is uniquely positioned to exploit synergies arising from an interdisciplinary approach to experiments in individual and group behavior. The proposal has sparked strong interest from researchers at UC Berkeley in economics, psychology, political science, as well as in fields as far-reaching as computer science, engineering, information systems, and business. Finally, the Lab is in a position to exploit Berkeley's large and diverse student population, making it particularly amenable to studies involving gender and historically underrepresented minorities.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

(Showing: 1 - 1 of 1).

John Morgan, Henrik Orzen and Martin Sefton.  "An Experimental Study of Advertising and Price Competition,"  European Economic Review,  v.50 (2),  2006,  p. 323.


(Showing: 1 - 1 of 1).

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.