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Is formalism the key to resolving the generalizability crisis? An experimental economics perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2022

Zacharias Maniadis Open the ORCID record for Zacharias Maniadis [Opens in a new window]
Zacharias Maniadis*
Affiliation:
Economics Department and Center for Economic Policy Research, University of Cyprus, CY-1678 Nicosia, Cyprus and Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences, School of University of Southampton Highfield Campus, SouthamptonSO17 1BJ, UK. z.maniadis@soton.ac.uk; https://sites.google.com/site/zachariasmaniadiswebpage/
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Abstract

I draw lessons from experimental economics. I argue that the lack of mathematical formalism cannot be usefully thought as the cause of the underappreciation of contextual and generalizability considerations. Instead, this lack is problematic because it hinders a clear relationship between theory and quantitative predictions. I also advocate a pragmatic policy-focused approach as a partial remedy to the generalizability problem.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e27
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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