In recent years, we have seen an enormous increase and rising interest in
academic research using field experimental methods to address questions
across a broad range of topics in environmental economics including
individual climate protection, the management of energy or water
consumption, traffic management, and resource conservation. At the same
time, field partners from policymaking and business start to appreciate
the benefits that field experiments can have to design and evaluate
policy programs and investigate individual behavior. This seminar is
designed to provide an overview of the design and the analysis of field
experiments in environmental economics. In the first part of the course,
we will focus on methodological issues surrounding the design of field
experiments and subsequent interpretation of the results. In the second
part of the course, students will present and discuss selected examples
where field experiments have been used to (i) test predictions of
theoretical models and/or enhance our understanding of the factors that
drive individual behavior and to (ii) evaluate whether and why policy
interventions work.