Reflections on Inequality and Humanistic Management
Economic experiments are situations under controlled conditions in which participants are assigned specific roles and given incentives to make choices. Experiments have been broadly used in the field of behavioral economics to observe and analyze human behavior in economic decision-making.
In educational settings, economic experiments have great potential for experiential learning as an alternative to “chalk-and-talk” lectures. They can improve student engagement, motivation, attendance, and academic performance. Experiments can also enhance teacher performance by improving course evaluations.
Behaviors and decision-making processes elicited in economic classroom experiments can involve moral and ethical dimensions. For example, an experimental setting can raise reflection on how to trade off efficiency for fairness/equality, or how to balance individual versus community benefits.
This toolkit focuses on the Mini-Dictator Game (MDG), a standardized experiment in the literature used to explore concepts such as altruism, fairness, and generosity in economic interactions.