The Study of Culture in Economics: Experimental Approaches and Contributions

Research in Experimental Economics (REE) is a series of edited and refereed research volumes published by Emerald Group Publishing. It was first published in 1979, with Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith as the founding editor. Ever since, the series has become an important complementary outlet for publishing research in economics. Each REE volume addresses a particular topic. The topic of the upcoming Volume 20 is on the study of culture in economics, which might be of interest to certain International Business scholars working independently or in collaboration with other economics scholars.

Topics for the target volume

Culture is one of the key constructs in International Business (e.g., Leung et al, 2005;  Caprar, 2015), but is increasingly getting attention in other domains as well. Economists are interested  on how culture, broadly defined, affects economic and political behavior and outcomes like savings decisions, trust, tastes for redistribution, fairness, risk tolerance, economic growth, openness to trade, and more. This volume will focus on the contributions experimental economics can make to the culture-related questions confronting economists. In particular, we encourage submissions of lab and field experiments on any groups or social units where culture is a key variable of interest, along with studies that empirically investigate the validity of culture measurements, and how culture measured in the lab translates to the field.

A key requirement for submission is that participants are monetarily incentivized, since paying subjects according to the decisions they make during the experiment is a defining feature of experimental economics.

REE submissions are externally reviewed. The review criteria are the same as those used in major research journals (e.g. relevance of the topic, quality of the research design, etc.). However, it is important to note that REE has the freedom to consider papers that may not fit certain constraints of traditional journals in spite being valuable contributions. Some examples of such contributions are: replication studies, publication of null results, research that requires longer manuscripts for presentation of data or analysis, and papers focused on methodological topics.

Submission procedure

Interested authors are encouraged to contact the volume editors as soon as possible. For full consideration, completed manuscripts must be received by February 1, 2017. Space for inclusion in this volume is limited.

Email for submissions: cultureREE20@gmail.com

For questions and further information, please feel free to use the submission email above, or contact directly one of the volume editors:

Anna Gunnthorsdottir, Vienna University of Economics and Business (a.gunnthorsdottir@gmail.com)

Doug Norton, MobLab and Florida State University (norton.douglas.alan@gmail.com)

Dan V. Caprar, UNSW Australia (dan.caprar@unsw.edu.au)