Expert-Grup

Economic Experiments: Innovative Tools for Finding Solutions to Economic Problems

Friday, 27 September 20194441 views
Economic Experiments: Innovative Tools for Finding Solutions to Economic Problems

Automatically translated summary. The full article is available in Romanian.

On 23 and 24 September, more than 200 students and pupils of the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (ASEM) and the ASEM College of Commerce took part in a first-of-its-kind economic experiment. It was organised by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup”, in partnership with ASEM and the experimental economics laboratory in Montpellier, France.

Participants made decisions about tax evasion and the reporting of fraud in a computer game, with in-game sums matched to real money. The average payout was MDL 175 and the maximum MDL 380. Rustam Romaniuc of the Montpellier laboratory said such experiments yield solutions that traditional economic analysis cannot, and that French authorities co-finance them. Moldovan results will be compared with French ones.

Adrian Lupușor, Executive Director of Expert-Grup, said policymakers need alternative tools that take greater account of people’s motivations, and that Expert-Grup will keep developing this instrument. The results will feed a policy document with recommendations for reducing tax evasion in Moldova, to be presented at a public event in November. The project is funded by the Open Society Foundation.

View the original article in Romanian