Participate in experiments

Click here to register to participate in experiments online.

By registering, you will receive invitations to participate in sessions throughout the year. You may accept or decline invitations.

You decline by not responding to the invitation. There is no penalty for not accepting an invitation, but we do take note of those that accept an invitation and fail to show up.

You accept by responding to the invitation. Once you confirm your participation, you are expected to arrive at the lab at the schedule time. Note that sessions begin on time, so you should arrive 5-10 minutes early.

You will be paid in cash at the conclusion of the session.

the lab

The Appalachian Experimental Economics Laboratory (AppEEL) is located at 2021 Raley Hall. The lab consists of 25 subject stations, a monitor station, and audio and video projection systems. The lab is setup with one stationary server and multiple mobile servers that are assigned to individual researchers. An online recruitment system manages a subject pool that includes students and non-students.

experimental economics faculty

David Bruner

Todd L. Cherry

David L. Dickinson

Tanga M. McDaniel

Dave McEvoy

Mike McKee (Director)

recent experimental publications

Cherry, Todd L. and Jason F. Shogren. "Self-interest, Sympathy and the Origin of Endowments" (with J. Shogren) Economics Letters, forthcoming.

McKee, Michael, Rudy Santore, and Joel Shelton “Contingent Fees, Moral Hazard, and Attorney Rents: A Laboratory Experiment,” Journal of Legal Studies, forthcoming.

Dickinson, David L., and Marie-Claire Villeval “Does Monitoring Decrease Work Effort?  The Complementarity Between Agency and Crowding-Out Theories.” Games and Economic Behavior, forthcoming.

Bruner, David, Michael McKee and Rudy Santore “Hand in the Cookie Jar: An Experimental Investigation of Equity-based Compensation and Managerial Fraud,” Southern Economic Journal, forthcoming.

List, John and Todd L. Cherry "Examining the Role of Fairness in High Stakes Allocation Decisions" Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, forthcoming.

Harrison, Glenn W. and Tanga McDaniel “Voting Games and Computational Complexity,” Oxford Economic Papers, forthcoming.

Dickinson, David L. “The Effects of Beliefs versus Risk Attitude on Bargaining Outcomes," Theory and Decision, forthcoming.

Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods Todd L. Cherry, Jason F. Shogren and Stephan Kroll, editors, Routledge, London, 2008.

McKenna, Benjamin., David L. Dickinson, Henry Orff, and Sean P.A. Drummond “The Effects of One-Night of Sleep Deprivation on Known-Risk and Ambiguous-Risk Decisions.” forthcoming, Journal of Sleep Research, 16(3): 245-252.

Berrens, Robert Berrens, Michael Jones, Michael McKee, and John Talberth “Using Economic Experiments in Policy Evaluation: Exploration of Wildfire Risk Mitigation Decisions,” in Wildfire and Fuels Management: Risk and Human Response, B. Kent and C. Raisch (eds.), Resources for the Future, Washington, DC, forthcoming.

Cherry, Todd L. and David Dickinson “The Effects of Multiple Public Goods on Voluntary Contributions” Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods (Cherry, Kroll, Shogren, eds) Routledge, UK, 2008.

Evans, Mary F., Scott M. Gilpatric, Michael McKee, and Christian A. Vossler “Managerial Incentives for Compliance with Environmental Information Disclosure Programs,” in Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods, T. Cherry, S. Kroll, and J. Shrogen (eds), Routledge Press, New York, 2008.

Settle, Chad, Jason Shogren and Todd L. Cherry “Rationality Spillovers in Yellowstone” Environmental Economics, Experimental Methods (Cherry, Kroll, Shogren, eds) Routledge, UK,
2008.

Kroll, Stephan, Todd L. Cherry and Jason Shogren “Voting, Punishment and Public Goods” Economic Inquiry, Volume 45, Number 3, July 2007.

Cherry, Todd L. and Jason Shogren “Rationality Crossovers” Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 28, Number 2, April 2007.

Kroll, Stephan, Todd L. Cherry and Jason Shogren “The Impact of Endowment Heterogeneity and Origin on Contributions in Best-Shot Public Good Games” Experimental Economics, 2007.

Bjornstad, David and Michael McKee “Making Enduring Choices: Uncertainty and Public Policy,” Energy Economics, vol 28, pp 667-676, 2006.

Cummings, Ronald, Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, and Michael McKee “Experimental Evidence on Mixing Modes of Income Tax Evasion,” Public Finance Review, vol. 34, pp 687-711, 2006.

Dickinson, David L. “On-the-Job Leisure as a Cause of Asymmetric Observed-Effort Distributions.” Managerial and Decision Economics, special issue: Experimental Economics, 27(6): 435-44, 2006.

Vossler, Christian and Michael McKee “Induced Value Tests of Elicitation Mechanisms for Contingent Valuation Surveys,” Environmental and Resource Economics, 2006, vol 36, pp 137-168, 2006.

Brandt, Sylvia and David McEvoy, “Distributional Effects of Property Rights:
Transitions in the Atlantic Herring Fishery.” Marine Policy. 30(6): 659-670, 2006.

Talberth, J., R. Berrens, M. McKee, and M. Jones “Averting and Insurance Decisions in the Wildland Urban Interface: Implications of Survey and Experimental Data for Wildfire Risk Reduction Policy,” Contemporary Economic Policy, 24(2), pp 203-223, 2006.

Starbuck, Meghan, Robert Berrens, and Michael McKee “Simulating Economic Impacts from Hazardous Fuels Treatment and Forest Restoration Management Activities,” Forest Policy and Economics, 8, pp 52-66, 2006.

Alm, James and Michael McKee “Audit Certainty and Taxpayer Compliance,” National Tax Journal, LIX (4), 801-816, 2006.

Van Boening, Mark, Tanja Blackstone, Michael McKee and Elisabet Rutstrom “Benefit Packages and Individual Behavior: Choices Over Discrete Goods with Multiple
Attributes,” Managerial and Decision Economics, 2006, vol. 27, pp 511-526.

Dickinson, David L. “The chilling effect of optimism: The case of final-offer arbitration.” Journal of Socio-Economics, 35(1): 17-30, 2006.

recent experimental grant activity

“Billet Assignment and Resource Allocation Experiments” Todd Cherry, Dave McEvoy and Mike McKee, Office of Naval Research, $118,183, 2008-2009.

“The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Decision-Making under Uncertainty as Measure with FMRI,” Sean Drummond, David Dickinson, Martin Paulus, Jeffrey Dyche, National Science Foundation, 2008-2010, $750,000.

“Behavioral Tax Research Using Experimental Economics: Encouraging Filing Participation and Social Network Effects,” Jim Alm, Todd Cherry, Mike McKee and Michael Jones, Internal Revenue Service, 2007-2008, $79,575.

“Nonbinding Suggestions and Dispute Rates:  Uncertainty, Focal Points, and Their Effects on Bargaining Outcomes,” David Dickinson and Lynn Hunnicutt, National Science Foundation, 2003-2004, $44,000.

“Comparative Arbitration Procedures: The Role of Expectations in Dispute Rates,” David Dickinson, National Science Foundation, 2002-2003, $56,000.

Experimental Economics & Policy simulation

Experimental Economics applies the laboratory method of inquiry to better understand how society operates. Experiments, in the lab and in the field, allow for a more precise investigation of how individual, social and institutional characteristics influence individual behavior and final outcomes. A well-established finding in experimental economics is that institutions matter because the rules matter, and the rules matter because incentives matter.

Policy Simulation uses the lab as a wind tunnel that tests the responses and outcomes of competing policies. Policy attempts to achieve an outcome by altering behavior through changes in institutional rules and incentives, but the attempts often fall short because of ineffective mechanisms and unintended consequences. The lab provides a way to identify a more precise understanding and prediction of competing policies. By highlighting what works and what does not work, public and private policymakers are better equiped to implement policies that achieve the desired goals.

Links

Conferences