^aCNRS-GATE, University of Lyon, 93 chemin des Mouilles, Ecully, 69130, France. E-mail: villeval@gate.cnrs.fr

Abstract

Although economics has long been considered as a non-experimental science, the development of experimental economics and behavioral economics is amazingly rapid and affects most fields of research. This paper first attempts at defining the main contributions of experiments to economics. It also identifies four main trends in the development of experimental research in economics. The third contribution of this paper is to identify the major theoretical and methodological challenges faced by behavioral and experimental economics.