Experiments for teaching economics

Classroom experiments are a particularly popular and powerful experiential-learning tool. Students who have participated in an experiment and have seen the resulting data are interested to discover for themselves how well (or poorly) the theory works to explain the reality that they have observed, instead of simply learning the theory as dogma to be memorized. This paper discusses the education literature on the impacts of experiments in students’ performance, engagement, and enjoyment of the class. It shows that technology and newly available material drastically reduce the costs of running experiments, and automatically provide the output data necessary for a fruitful discussion with students. They also blur the differences between running experiments in-class or online. Experiments are becoming an easy way to engage students and facilitate the understanding of ‘difficult’ concepts without sacrificing, and most likely improving, student performance, while contributing to making teaching a more enjoyable experience.