Centre for Experimental Economics
EXEC is one of the oldest centres for experimental economics in the world, and has been active since 1988 when it was founded by John Hey and Graham Loomes. For a while EXEC was directed by Miguel Costa-Gomes. John Hey has now returned as full-time Director.
In the years since EXEC was founded, experimental economics has grown into a respected and well-established methodology, used by many thousands of economists throughout the world. In essence the methodology involves testing economic theories using data generated from laboratory experiments - exactly as in the physical sciences. Recently field experiments too have become increasingly important. EXEC has contributed to this development, carrying out a variety of experiments, investigating theories of individual behaviour, of behaviour in games, and behaviour in markets.