[Excerpts taken from the article “Economists run experiments, too” by Aiora Zabala, published at Nature Sustainability]

“For most who don’t know this literature, it’s easy to lightly recommend that we should implement taxes, subsidies or regulations to tackle environmental challenges…Economists and behavioural scientists are trying to find the answer by running experiments (much like in life sciences labs). With these, researchers test policy variations before they are implemented…”

“Two years ago, scholars concerned with these questions formed the Research Network on Economic Experiments for the Common Agricultural Policy (REECAP). In early September this year, they gathered in Osnabrück (Germany) to discuss their latest studies, future directions for the field and common concerns.”

“Among the sessions, they included speakers at the interface between science and policy, directly advising European institutions on their agricultural policies, doing environmental lobbying in Brussels, or directly making decisions, for example.”

“Another topic concerned the so-called crisis of reproducibility of published studies, first discussed in psychology and in life sciences, and put on the spot among economists by studies like this and this.”

“To a panel on the topic, I brought the view on the challenges and opportunities of such crisis from an editors’ perspective. Some areas for action are policy checklists and code and data statements (as currently done across Nature journals).”

“Replication studies are increasing and interesting initiatives are ongoing (like the Replication Network)…”

To read the article, click here.