Experimental Economics and Public Choice
There is a well-established tradition of using laboratory techniques to study issues in public choice, dating back to the 1970s. For example, Fiorina and Plott (1978) and Plott and Levine (1978) reported results of voting experiments, and Bohm (1972) used an experimental approach to estimate demand for public goods. This connection is reflected in the fact that the Economic Science Association (of experimental social scientists) meets jointly with the Public Choice Society each spring in the United States. This chapter provides a selective survey of experiments on public goods, common pool resources, rent seeking, and voting.