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Experiments in the Social Sciences: The relationship between External and Internal Validity

Jimenez-Buedo, Maria and Miller, Luis M. (2009) Experiments in the Social Sciences: The relationship between External and Internal Validity. In: UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The article identifies a latent debate in the recent literature on the role and worth of experiments in economics and other social sciences concerning the relationship between the external and the internal validity of experimental designs. Our work identifies two incompatible views regarding the relationship between internal and external validity of experiments. While in the methodological literature references to the idea that there is a trade-off between the internal and external validity of experiments abound, this view coexists with the position stating that internal validity is rather a prerequisite of external validity. By identifying the contours of this implicit debate in the recent methodological literature around the use of experiments in the social sciences we call attention upon a series of insufficiently conceptualized issues regarding the central notions of internal and external validity and we question the standard view positing a trade-off between the two. This article stands against common associations of internal validity and external validity with the distinction between field and laboratory experiments and assesses critically the arguments that link the artificiality of experimental settings done in the laboratory with the purported trade-off between internal and external validity.


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Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (UNSPECIFIED)
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Jimenez-Buedo, Maria
Miller, Luis M.
Keywords: internal validity, external validity, experiments, experimental economics.
Subjects: General Issues > Experimentation
Depositing User: María Jiménez-Buedo
Date Deposited: 01 Mar 2012 22:25
Last Modified: 01 Mar 2012 22:25
Item ID: 9037
Subjects: General Issues > Experimentation
Date: 2009
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9037

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