Fabio Tufano

How to make experimental economics research more reproducible: lessons from other disciplines and a new proposal.

Abstract Efforts in the spirit of this special issue aim at improving the reproducibility of experimental economics, in response to the recent discussions regarding the “research reproducibility crisis.” We put this endeavor in perspective by summarizing the main ways (to our knowledge) that have been proposed – by researchers from several disciplines – to alleviate the problem. We discuss the scope for economic theory to contribute to evaluating the proposals. We argue that a potential key impediment to replication is the expectation of negative reactions by the authors of the individual study, and suggest that incentives for having one’s work replicated should increase.

To replicate or not to replicate?: exploring reproducibility in economics through the lens of a model and a pilot study

The sciences are in an era of an alleged ‘credibility crisis’. In this study, we discuss the reproducibility of empirical results, focusing on economics research. By combining theory and empirical evidence, we discuss the import of replication studies, and whether they improve our confidence in novel findings. The theory sheds light on the importance of replications, even when replications are subject to bias. We then present a pilot meta-study of replication in experimental economics, a subfield serving as a positive benchmark for investigating the credibility of economics. Our meta-study highlights certain difficulties when applying meta-research to systematise the economics literature.

The research reproducibility crisis and economics of science

We provide a brief summary of two areas where cross-fertilization across economics and other disciplines is likely to have far-reaching benefits. The increasing concern about research reproducibility entails that economic design has much to contribute to the discussion of possible reforms in science, while the empirical discipline of meta-research can inform practices to assess the validity of the economics literature. A mutual investment in investigating possible synergies may be costly but could benefit the scientific endeavour as a whole.