Paper Database
This database is a work in progress. If you know of a paper that should be included — or if your own work is missing — please [email protected]. I aim to keep this current through the most recent issues.
| Year | Journal | Title & Authors | Type |
|---|
Survey Articles & Methods Guides
"Field Experiments"
Journal of Economic Literature, 2004
The foundational taxonomy distinguishing conventional lab, artefactual field, framed field, and natural field experiments. Essential reading before designing any experiment.
"Experimental Methods: Between-Subject and Within-Subject Design"
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2012
Practical guide to choosing between-subject vs. within-subject designs, with guidance on statistical power and demand effects.
"What Do Laboratory Experiments Measuring Social Preferences Reveal About the Real World?"
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2007
An influential and provocative assessment of external validity concerns — when and why lab findings may not generalize.
"Doing Survey Research"
NBER Reporter, 2018
Accessible overview of survey experiment design for economists, with practical advice on framing, incentives, and validation.
"Lab Experiments Are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences"
Science, 2009
A response to external validity critics — argues that controlled lab experiments yield uniquely reliable causal identification that field settings cannot replicate.
"Using Predictions from a Stochastic Model to Measure Subjective Probabilities"
Review of Economic Studies, 2004
Foundational work on eliciting probabilistic expectations in surveys — relevant for finance researchers using subjective belief elicitation.
"Conduct a Survey Experiment"
In Handbook of Research Methods in Sociology and Social Policy, 2022
A practical how-to covering design, pre-registration, Qualtrics implementation, and analysis of survey experiments.
Platforms & Tools
Recruitment · Academic
Prolific
The preferred participant recruitment platform for academic research. Large pool of pre-screened participants with detailed demographic filters. Faster and more representative than MTurk for most research purposes.
prolific.com
Survey Software
Qualtrics
The industry standard for survey design and administration. Supports complex branching logic, embedded data, randomization, and direct integration with Prolific and MTurk. Most universities provide institutional access.
qualtrics.com
Lab Experiments · Open Source
oTree
Python-based platform for building interactive economic experiments — games, auctions, markets, and incentivized tasks. Runs in the browser, supports multiplayer interactions, and integrates easily with lab infrastructure. Open source.
otree.org
Lab Experiments
z-Tree
The classic lab experiment software (Zurich Toolbox for Readymade Economic Experiments). Widely used in economics labs worldwide. Best for incentivized tasks in a controlled lab setting with networked computers.
ztree.uzh.ch
Representative Panel · U.S.
Understanding America Study
USC's probability-based internet panel of ~9,000 U.S. adults, designed for longitudinal survey research. Allows repeated measurement of the same individuals. Particularly useful for household finance and retirement topics.
uasdata.usc.edu
Representative Panel · U.S.
RAND American Life Panel
A probability-based online panel of ~6,000 U.S. adults surveyed monthly. Supports researcher-designed surveys with access to a broadly representative sample. Good for belief elicitation, financial literacy, and expectations research.
alpdata.rand.org
Recruitment · Crowdsourcing
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Large crowdsourcing marketplace for recruiting online participants. Low cost and fast, but well-documented concerns about data quality and worker demographics. Better suited for pilot testing and replication than primary data collection.
mturk.com
Recruitment · Commercial Panel
Lucid (Cint)
Large-scale commercial panel with quota-based sampling, giving researchers access to demographically representative samples in the U.S. and internationally. Widely used in political science and economics for survey experiments requiring national representativeness.
luc.id