UROP Project

Introduction to Laboratory Experimental Research in Economics

experimental economics, contests, public goods, land assembly, markets, law and economics
Mark-Isaac-Headshot.jpg
Research Mentor: misaac@fsu.edu Mark Isaac,
Department, College, Affiliation: Economics, Social Sciences and Public Policy
Contact Email: misaac@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Preference for Economics majors, or related disciplines including Finance, Risk Management, Accounting, Political Science, Philosophy, and Governance and Civics, plus any PPE minors.
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:
Not participating in the roundtable

Project Description

The positions will be comprised of four main components: 1 ) The student will learn about the importance of protecting human subjects and will be expected to pass the IRB CITI training for students; 2) The student will learn why economics can be an experimental discipline; 3 ) The student will work with other members of our lab, including other UROPs, to help in the subject recruitment process, lab demonstrations, and conference support ; 4 ) The student will work through appropriate literature reviews and interaction with the mentor to propose and experimental economics design as complete as possible but without actually building a computer program and collecting the data. This independent research design will form the core of their poster presentation.

Research Tasks: IRB certification, assistance with subject recruiting, becoming up to speed on the foundations of experimental economics, literature review. independent modeling and research design.

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: REQUIRED: Generally computer literate for standard tools such as Google Scholar, JSTOR, Excel, graphing programs, AI, Dropbox, etc..

RECOMMENDED: Having taken, or at least being enrolled in, the Principles of Microeconomics course. The more economics courses the better, unless of course the student is proposing a "bridge" project between Economics and, for example, Philosophy; in that case course literacy will be specific to the student's interest.

Mentoring Philosophy

Many students have never though of Economics as an experimental discipline. My philosophy is to bring the student up to a particular level of basic knowledge in human subjects protection and the origins of experimental economics and then to explore with them their personal topical interests that might be amenable to a prototype experimental economics project. They will have some standard assignments in our lab (typically in subject recruiting, presentations, helping with a conference) but beyond that I will give them a great deal of latitude to do their own reading and literature review to find a topic that interests them.

Additional Information

Last year I mentored four UROPS, which was a lot of fun, but I felt stretched too thin. This year I would like to limit myself to two UROPS and spend more time with each of them.

Link to Publications

myweb.fsu.edu/misaac