Are there any compelling criticisms of the experimental approach?
How do you respond to them? There are many important questions that cannot be answered by the use of experimental methods. That is the case in economics as it is the case in any other science. If one wants to know specific facts about the U.S. economy or any other economy then one must study the economy as it is found in nature. It is silly to think about creating the whole economy in a laboratory for replication and study. How does one respond when someone poses a question that experiments cannot answer? Just simply say that they are correct and add examples to the list. Experimentation is a method that is sometimes useful and sometimes not. The fact that experiments cannot answer all questions does not mean that there are no questions at all that experiments can answer. One can just as easily turn the discussion around by posing questions that can only be answered by application of experimental methods. Almost all subtle issues of theory fall in the latter class. Have experiments hel
