Ph.D Program in Political Science
SUM/SNS, Bologna, Siena
CRASH COURSES IN EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS
IN POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
May 15-16, 2014
Siena
Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences - DISPOC
Via Mattioli, 10
Instructors
Bernhard Kittel (University of Vienna, bernhard.kittel@univie.ac.at)
Alessandro Innocenti (Università di Siena, alessandro.innocenti@unisi.it)
Pierangelo Isernia (Università di Siena, isernia@unisi.it)
Course Overview
The course aims to provide graduate students with a basic introduction to the
use of experimental methods in political and social sciences. The course will
deal with methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of experimentation.
It will assume no prior knowledge of experimental methods.
The course is divided in three parts:
(1) Introducing experiments as a research method in political and social
sciences.
(2) Understanding the basic methodology behind experimental design.
(3) Critically analyzing a selection of experimental studies and designs related
to political sciences and economics.
Course objectives
The participants will develop an understanding of the main foundations and
assumptions of experimental methods in political and social sciences. They will
also gain insight into the empirical literature of experiments from political
science, economics and neuroscience. Finally, they will be able to critically read
experimental designs and conclusions. Students will also be given the
opportunity to act as subjects in a laboratory experiment, which will be
performed at the start of the course and discussed during the course.
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Course Schedule
The workshop is intended to introduce PhD students in political science,
sociology, and related disciplines to the experimental approach in the social
sciences. Inspired by experimental psychology on the one hand, and
experimental economics, on the other hand, experimental research has gained
in popularity in the social sciences more generally during the last decennium.
In the first day we will first discuss the contribution of experimental research
to the toolbox of the social sciences and highlight its potential to test claims
about causal effects. In the second day we will do an online classroom
experiment and use the results to clarify the possibilities of experimental
research. In the afternoon session we will start by discussing several
possibilities to set up an experimental design. Based on this foundation we will
then do an exercise highlighting different aspects of validity concerns. We will
finish by a presentation on the use of incentives, the extent of control
attainable in experiments, and sources of noise and biases that can appear in
experimental research. We will finish by wrapping up the diverse issues
encountered during the day.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Instructor: Bernhard Kittel
9AM-10AM: Introduction: Experiments in the Social Sciences
10AM-11AM: Causality and the measurement of causal effects
11AM-11.15AM: Coffee break
11.15AM-12.30PM: Example experiment (Own laptops with internet access)
12.30PM-1.30PM: Lunch break
1.30PM-2.30PM: Experimental designs
2.30PM-3.30PM: Validity concerns in experimental research (Own laptops with
internet access)
3.30PM-3.45PM: Coffee break
3.45PM-4.45PM: Incentives, control and noise in experiments
4.45PM-5PM: Final discussion
Friday, May 16, 2014
Instructors: Alessandro Innocenti and Pierangelo Isernia,
9.30-10.30: experimental economics vs political science
10.30-11: an experimental test
11-11.15: coffee-break
11.15-12.15: population-based experiments
12.15-13: applications with discussion
13-14: lunch
14-14.30: quasi-experiments and field experiments
14.30-15.30: experimental findings
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15-30-15.45: coffee-break
15.45-17: cognitive economics and political science
Readings
Preliminary Readings
The following readings provide students with a very basic introductory review
of research in Experimental Political Science:
- Druckman J.N., D.P. Green, J.H. Kuklinski and A. Lupia (2006) “The growth
and development of experimental research in political sciences”, American
Political Science Review, 100, 627-635.
- Morton R.B. and K.C. Williams (2010) Experimental Political Science and the
Study of Causality. From Nature to the Lab, Cambridge University Press, New
York, Chapter 1.
- Friedman, D. and S. Sunder (1994) Experimental methods. A primer for
economists, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, chapt. 1-2-3.
Recommended Readings
- De Rooij, Eline A., Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber. 2009. "Field
Experiments on Political Behavior and Collective Action." Annual Review of
Political Science 12:389-95.
- Falk, Armin and James J. Heckman. 2009. "Lab Experiments Are a Major
Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences." Science 326:535-38.
- Fehr, Ernst and Herbert Gintis. 2007. "Human Motivation and Social
Cooperation: Experimental and Analytical Foundations." Annual Review of
Sociology 33:43-64.
- Jackson, Michelle and D.R. Cox. 2013. "The Principles of Experimental Design
and Their Application in Sociology." Annual Review of Sociology 39:27-49.
- Molm, Linda D. 2007. "Experiments on Exchange Relations and Exchange
Networks in Sociology." Pp. 379-406 in Laboratory Experiments in the Social
Sciences, edited by M. Webster Jr. and J. Sell. London: Academic Press.
- Palfrey, Thomas R. 2009. "Laboratory Experiments in Political Economy."
Annual Review of Political Science 12:379-88.
- Smith, Vernon L. 1994. "Economics in the Laboratory." Journal of Economic
Perspectives 8(1):113-31.
- Smith, Vernon L. 2005. "Behavioral Economics Research and the Foundations
of Economics." The Journal of Socioeconomics 34:135-50.
- Smith, Vernon L. 2010. "Theory and Experiment: What Are the Questions?"
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 73:3-15.
- Wilson, Rick K. 2011. "The Contribution of Behavioral Economics to Political
Science." Annual Review of Political Science 14:201-23.
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Background Readings
- Bardsley, Nicholas, Robin Cubitt, Graham Loomes, Peter Moffatt, Chris
Starmer and Robert Sugden. 2010. Experimental Economics. Rethinking the
Rules. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Davis, Douglas D. and Charles A. Holt. 1993. Experimental Economics.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Druckman, James N., Donald P. Green, James H. Kuklinski and Arthur Lupia,
eds. 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
- Guala, Francesco. 2005. The Methodology of Experimental Economics.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Kagel, John H. and Alvin E. Roth, eds. 1995. Handbook of Experimental
Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Kinder, Donald R. and Thomas R. Palfrey, eds. 1993. Experimental
Foundations of Political Science. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press.
- Kittel, Bernhard, Wolfgang J. Luhan and Rebecca B. Morton, eds. 2012.
Experimental Political Science: Principles and Practices. Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan.
- Morton, Rebecca B. and Kenneth Williams. 2010. Experimental Political
Science and the Study of Causality. From Nature to the Lab. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
- Diana C. Mutz (2011). Population-based Survey Experiments. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
- Plott, Charles A. and Vernon L. Smith. 2008. Handbook of Experimental
Economics Results. Volume I. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
- Shadish, William R., Thomas D. Cook and Donald T. Campbell. 2002.
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal
Inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Webster Jr., Murray and Jane Sell, eds. 2007. Laboratory Experiments in the
Social Sciences. Amsterdam: Academic Press.
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