Harrison and List:Field Experiments 1013 understand the limitations of the generality this is an important component of the inter- of theory only via empirical testing. play between the lab and field.Early illus- Again,however,just having one field char trations of the value of this approach include acteristic,in this case a physical good,does David Grether,R.Mark Isaac,and Charles not constitute a field expe riment in any fun Plott [1981,1989],Grether and Plott [1984] damental se nse.Rutstrom (1998)sold lots and James Hong and Plott [19821. and lots of h truffles in a lab h nature of the stakes also affec ren ake in the laboratory designed to diffe th was svery much a lab expe er n the e field. we an eff tastiness commodi imilarly,Iar vior.If val Bateman et al.(1997)elicite I valuat ons ove when they are in the tens of ars,or in the pizza and dessert vouchers for a local restau ut are made in er ently when rant.While these commodities were no the price is less than one dollar,laboratory or actual pizza or dessert themselves,but field experiments with stakes below one do vouchers entitling the subiect to obtain lar could easily engender imprecise bids.Of them,they are not abstract.There are many course,people buy inexpensive goods in the r o omme field as well,but the valuation process they se might be keved to different stake levels The nature of the task that the subject is Alternatively,field experiments in relatively being asked to undertake is an in portant ortunity to eval epect that sino omtafan s within a n budget role in helping Th The vior vironme s of gel and Dan Levin illustrate th can provide super-expe heuristic a lab sett g might 0 experimenters always wondered inexperiencec terms of their whether the use of classrooms might gen propensity to fall prey to the winners' curse der role-playing behavior,and indeed this is An important question is whether the suc one of the reasons experimental economists cessful heuristics that evolve in certain field are generally suspicious of experiments settings“travel”to the other field and lab without salient monetary rewards. Even settings (Harrison and List 2003).Another with salient rewards however environmen- aspect of the task is the specific parameteri tal effects could remain.Rather than view zation that is adopted in the e then as uncontrolled effects,we see them as One can nt worthy of controlled study. m the so as study lab be or in a field 2.2 A Proposed Taxonomy is of of field n-specifi vior can always be ors tha diffe e exper convention again,Lis lab experiment (on There Is some owever,in having ive power of broad terms to differentiate wha we see a ura义wo the key differences.We propose the following terminology: a conventional lab experiment is one