How validity travelled to economic experimenting
Journal of Economic Methodology 18 (01):13-28 (2011)
| Abstract | Validity was first given a more specifically scientific meaning by psychologists in the early twentieth century in the contexts of psychological tests. Following the classification of different validity-types in the American Psychological Association's Technical Recommendations (1954), validity travelled from psychological tests to psychological experiments through the work of Donald Campbell. Thus the idea was introduced that also experiments could be more or less valid. In addition, a distinction was made between the internal and the external validity of an experiment. Of the two domains in which validity was employed in psychology, only the internal and external validity of experimental methodology travelled to economics. The initial implementation of validity in economic experimentation was reluctant, and focused upon showing how external validity in particular was not problematic in economic experiments. However, the gradual adoption of validity by economists working with experiments eventually led to the clear, analytical definition of internal validity by Francesco Guala, a definition that was subsequently taken over by other economists. In its travels from psychological tests to psychological experiments to economic experiments the concept of validity generally retained its meaning as the accuracy of a scientific procedure. At the same time, however, it was put to use in dissimilar ways and elicited different discussions in the scientific realms in which it was applied. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesArthur Schram (2005). Artificiality: The Tension Between Internal and External Validity in Economic Experiments. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (2):225-237.
Luis M. Miller (2010). Why a Trade-Off? The Relationship Between the External and Internal Validity of Experiments. Theoria 25 (3):301-321.
María Jiménez-Buedo (2011). Conceptual Tools for Assessing Experiments: Some Well-Entrenched Confusions Regarding the Internal/External Validity Distinction. Journal of Economic Methodology 18 (3):271-282.
Francesco Guala & Luigi Mittone (2005). Experiments in Economics: External Validity and the Robustness of Phenomena. Journal of Economic Methodology 12 (4):495-515.
Jeffrey W. Lucas (2003). Theory-Testing, Generalization, and the Problem of External Validity. Sociological Theory 21 (3):236-253.
Fredrik Hansen (2007). Setting the Scene with 'Firms' and 'Workers'. Journal of Economic Methodology 14 (3):339-352.
J. Ketland (2012). Validity as a Primitive. Analysis 72 (3):421-430.
Michel S. Zouboulakis (1999). Walter Bagehot on Economic Methodology: Evolutionism and Realisticnessl. Journal of Economic Methodology 6 (1):79-94.
Francesco Guala (2003). Experimental Localism and External Validity. Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1195-1205.
Francesco Guala (2003). Experimental Localism and External Validity. Philosophy of Science 70 (5):1195-1205.
Martin K. Jones (2008). On the Autonomy of Experiments in Economics. Journal of Economic Methodology 15 (4):391-407.
Gordon Stobart (2001). The Validity of National Curriculum Assessment. British Journal of Educational Studies 49 (1):26 - 39.
Adriano C. T. Rodrigues & Claudio E. M. Banzato (2009). A Logical-Pragmatic Perspective on Validity. Dialogues in Philosophy, Mental and Neuro Sciences 2 (2):40-44.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2012-02-20Total downloads3 ( #201,930 of 549,090 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,317 of 549,090 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
