Laboratory of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Science (LaBEES-Athens)

At the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at AUA we operate a 25 seat experimental economics laboratory since 2006. The lab was first used for an auction experiment that was done in collaboration between Andreas Drihoutis, Panagiotis Lazaridis and Rudy Nayga in December 2006 which resulted in two publications: here and here. At the time, the lab was shared between classroom activities and experiments and some scheduling was required between competing activities.

In 2011 the lab moved to a different room than where was originally established, new equipment was purchased and everything was rebuild from scratch including desks with removable partitions. The relocation of the lab was facilitated by the late Leonidas Louloudis who at the time served as the vice rector of AUA.

lab2015
An overview of the lab with partitions installed (circa 2017)

At about the same time, we started operating an online recruitment software (ORSEE) in order to maximize control over recruitment and keep track of subjects’ history in experiment participation. Currently there are about 800 students registered in the database and 300 subjects from the general population.

In 2017 computer infrastructure was replaced and the lab is now almost exclusively used for economic experiments since the majority of classroom activities was moved to a different room (although the lab is still shared with some classroom activities.)

lab2017
Testing a zTree treatment in 25 newly acquired Dell Inspiron notebooks in April 2017

Since 2017, we operate an annual online survey (using Qualtrics) to the population of students registered in ORSEE (participation rate is approximately 50%) which elicits a wide range of student characteristics like decision style and decision approach measures, hypothetical risk and time preferences measures, measures of personality traits, cognitive ability measures, personality inventory and personality construct measures as well as incentivized risk and time preferences measures. This gives us the ability to link responses in experiments with a wide set of individual characteristics but also to invite subjects with specific characteristics in experiments.

Over the course of the years several AUA researchers are or have been affiliated with the lab: Andreas Drichoutis, Stathis Klonaris, Panagiotis Lazaridis, Georgia Papoutsi, Spiros Stachtiaris, Achilleas Vassilopoulos or other experimentalists looking to conduct experiments in Athens: Antonis Proestakis, Benedikt Herrmann, Philippos Exadaktylos.

List of publications affiliated with the LaBEES-Athens:

  • Drichoutis, A.C., Lazaridis, P. and Nayga, R.M., Jr. (2008). The role of reference prices in experimental auctions. Economics Letters 97(3), 446-448
  • Drichoutis, A.C., Lazaridis, P. and Nayga, R.M., Jr. (2009). Would consumers value food away from home products with nutritional labels? Agribusiness: An International Journal, 25(4), 550-575
  • Drichoutis, A.C., Nayga, R.M., Jr., Lazaridis, P. (2011). The role of training in experimental auctions. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 93(2):521-527
  • Drichoutis, A.C., Nayga, R.M., Jr., Lazaridis, P. and Park, B.S. (2011). A consistent econometric test for bid interdependence in repeated second-price auctions with posted prices. Atlantic Economic Journal 39(4): 329-341
  • Corrigan, J., Drichoutis, A.C., Lusk, J., Nayga, R.M., Jr., and Rousu, M. (2012). Repeated rounds with price feedback in experimental auction valuation: An adversarial collaboration. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 94(1): 97-115
  • Drichoutis, A.C. and Koundouri, P. (2012). Estimating risk attitudes in conventional and artefactual lab experiments: The importance of the underlying assumptions. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal 6(2012-38).
  • Drichoutis, A.C., Nayga, R.M., Jr., Lusk, J. and Lazaridis, P. (2012). When a risky prospect is valued more than its best possible outcome. Judgment and Decision Making 7(1): 1-18.
  • Drichoutis, A. C. and Nayga, R. M., Jr. (2013). Eliciting risk and time preferences under induced mood states. Journal of Socio-Economics 45: 18-27.
  • Drichoutis, A. C., Nayga, R. M., Jr. and Klonaris, S. (2014). The effects of induced mood on preference reversals and bidding behavior in experimental auction valuation. Studies in Microeconomics 2(2): 141-163.
  • Drichoutis, A. C. and Nayga, R. M., Jr. (2015). Do risk and time preferences have biological roots? Southern Economic Journal 82(1): 235-256.
  • Papoutsi, G.S., Nayga, R.M., Jr., Lazaridis, P. and Drichoutis, A.C. (2015) Nudging parental health behavior with and without children’s pestering power: Fat tax, subsidy or both? Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 117: 196-208.
  • Drichoutis, A.C., Klonaris, S. and Papoutsi, G. (2017) Do good things come in small packages? Bottle size effects on willingness to pay for pomegranate wine and grape wine. Journal of Wine Economics 12(1): 84-104.
  • Kechagia, V. and Drichoutis A.C. (2017) The effect of olfactory sensory cues on willingness to pay and choice under risk. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 70: 33-46.
  • Papoutsi, G., Klonaris, S. and Drichoutis, A.C. (2019) The health-taste trade-off in consumer decision making for functional snacks: An experimental approach. British Food Journal 123(5): 1645-1663.
  • Drichoutis, A.C. and Nayga, R.M. (2020) Economic rationality under cognitive load. The Economic Journal 130(632): 2382–2409.
  • Drichoutis, A.C. and Nayga, R.M., Jr. (2021) On the stability of risk and time preferences amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Experimental Economics 25: 759–794.
  • Drichoutis, A.C. and Nayga, R.M., Jr. (2022) Game form recognition in preference elicitation, cognitive abilities, and cognitive load. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 193: 49-65.