Behavioral Economics in a Laboratory-Based Token Economy

基于实验室的代币经济中的行为经济学

基本信息

批准号：
8445364
负责人：
TIMOTHY D HACKENBERG
金额：
$ 20.42万
依托单位：
REED COLLEGE
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2010
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2010-04-01 至 2015-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Among the most significant theoretical advances in the study of behavior over the past few decades has been the integration of economic and psychological perspectives-what has come to be called behavioral economics. A chief insight of behavioral economics is that behavior is always subject to constraints-restricted income, limited options, incomplete and uncertain information about the world-and that our theories need to take such factors into account. Behavioral economics, broadly construed, is an approach to understanding how these constraints impact behavior. It has also been fruitfully applied in recent years to a wide range of health- related problems, including addictions, gambling, and obesity, to name just a few. Behavioral economics is thus of practical as well as theoretical importance. The aim of the present research is to develop a laboratory-based system for examining behavior from an economic perspective. The centerpiece of the proposed research is a token-economic system, in which tokens are earned, accumulated, and exchanged for other commodities. Such behavior is readily viewed in economic terms: the production of tokens is akin to a wage, exchange rate to the price of a good, the production of exchange opportunities to procurement costs, accumulation of tokens to savings, and exchange of tokens for other goods to expenditures. As such, token systems provide a controlled and analytically tractable environment in which to explore interactions between behavior and economic variables. Such systems enable detailed measurement of economic behavior (e.g., labor, consumption, preference, savings) on multiple levels of analysis and in relation to a wide range of economic variables (e.g., prices, wages, interest, inflation). A token system, in short, provides an experimental test bed for fundamental concepts in behavioral economics. Building on an extensive body of animal research, the present research uses pigeons as workers in a miniature and self-contained economy. This maximizes experimental control, and permits systematic manipulation of variables useful in an economic analysis. At the same time, the token system is modeled after monetary-based economic systems. This brings within reach a wide range of economic variables never before studied in the laboratory, and with it, exciting new possibilities for an experimental analysis of economic behavior.

描述（由申请人提供）：过去几十年来，行为研究中最重要的理论进步之一是经济和心理学观点的整合，即所谓的行为经济学。行为经济学的一个主要见解是，行为总是受到限制——收入有限、选择有限、关于世界的不完整和不确定的信息——而我们的理论需要考虑这些因素。从广义上讲，行为经济学是一种理解这些约束如何影响行为的方法。近年来，它也被有效地应用于解决一系列与健康相关的问题，包括成瘾、赌博和肥胖等。因此，行为经济学具有实践和理论的重要性。本研究的目的是开发一个基于实验室的系统，从经济角度检查行为。拟议研究的核心是一个代币经济系统，在该系统中，代币可以被赚取、积累并兑换成其他商品。这种行为很容易用经济学术语来看待：代币的生产类似于工资，汇率类似于商品的价格，交换机会的产生类似于采购成本，代币的积累类似于储蓄，以及代币与其他商品的交换到支出。因此，代币系统提供了一个受控且易于分析的环境，可以在其中探索行为和经济变量之间的相互作用。这些系统能够在多个分析层面上详细衡量经济行为（例如劳动力、消费、偏好、储蓄），并与广泛的经济变量（例如价格、工资、利息、通货膨胀）相关。简而言之，代币系统为行为经济学的基本概念提供了一个实验平台。目前的研究以广泛的动物研究为基础，利用鸽子作为微型且自给自足的经济体中的工人。这最大化了实验控制，并允许系统地操纵在经济分析中有用的变量。同时，代币系统是仿照基于货币的经济系统而设计的。这带来了以前从未在实验室研究过的广泛经济变量，并为经济行为的实验分析带来了令人兴奋的新可能性。