Model Experiments and Models in Experiments

This paper explores how model-based reasoning might be characterized in terms of making experiments, and outlines the characteristic steps of such model experiments or “experiments on models”, and applies the notions to a diagrammatic model in everyday use in economics.

Abstract

This paper explores how model-based reasoning might be characterized in terms of making experiments. I outline the characteristic steps of such model experiments or “experiments on models”, and apply the notions to a diagrammatic model in everyday use in economics. I compare these model experiments with two other kinds of experiments (using examples from the same economic domain): laboratory experiments and a hybrid form. This hybrid form involves simulations or “experiments with models”. The paper concludes with a comparison of the role that models play in each case.