Vernon L. Smith

Vernon L. Smith is an American economist known for pioneering experimental economics, meaning he studies economic questions through controlled laboratory experiments. His work helps us understand how people make decisions in markets, revealing insights into negotiations, bidding, and trading behavior. By using experiments, he showed that real-world economic activities often differ from traditional models and that human psychology plays a significant role. His contributions have improved understanding of market functions and decision-making processes, earning him the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2002.