Experimental Economics: Science or What?
Ken Binmore
Economics Dept University College
Gower Street London WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
Avner Shaked
Economics Dept  Bonn University
Adenauerallee 24 3113 Bonn Germany

Abstract:  Do we want experimental economics to evolve into a genuine
science? This paper uses the literature on inequity aversion as a case study in
warning that we are at risk of losing the respect of other scientific disciplines if
we continue to accept the wide claims about human behavior that are currently
being advanced without examining either the data from which the claims are
supposedly derived or the methodology employed in analyzing the data.