KAGEL, John H(enry) 1942-

PERSONAL:

Born 1942; married Harriette Reifman (a teacher), August 22, 1966; children: Beth, Julie. Education: Tufts University, B.A., 1964; University of Pittsburgh, M.P.I.A., 1966; Purdue University, M.S., 1968, Ph.D., 1970.

ADDRESSES:

Home—4393 Donington Rd., Columbus, OH 43220. Office—Department of Economics, Ohio State University, 410 Arps Hall, Columbus, OH 43210. E-mail—kagel@economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu.

CAREER:

Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, began as assistant professor, became professor of economics, 1969-82; University of Houston, Houston, TX, professor of economics, 1982-88; University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, professor of economics and director of Economics Laboratory, 1988-99; University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Business, Pittsburgh, professor of business administration, 1998-99; Ohio State University, Columbus, chaired professor of allied microeconomics and director of Economics Laboratory, 1999—. Served on the editorial boards of Behaviour Analysis Letters, 1981-83, American Economic Review, 1989-95, Journal of Experimental Economics, 1997—, and Management Science, 1999—. Consultant to various firms, including H. E. W., Division of Dentistry, Manpower Planning; the United States Air Force, Human Resources Laboratory; McQuary and Tagaropolis Law Firm; Solvay America; Tansco Pipeline; Reinhardt and Anderson Law Firm; Munroe Consulting. Affiliate of Law and Economic Consulting Group.

MEMBER:

Economic Science Association (executive committee, 1986-91).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of numerous grants from foundations, including the National Science Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, and Earhart Foundation; Best Article Award, Western Economic Journal, 1973, for "A Test of Consumer Demand Theory Using Observation of Individual Consumer Purchases"; national fellow, Hoover Institution, 1981-82; fellow, Center of Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, 1988-99; Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award, University of Pittsburg, 1997; fellow, Econometric Society, 2003; Fulbright lecturer, University of Siena, 2004.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Leonard Green) Advances in Behavioral Economics, Volumes 1-3, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1987-96.

(With Raymond C. Battalio and Leonard Green) Economic Choice Theory: An Experimental Analysis of Animal Behavior, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

(Editor, with A. Roth) The Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1995.

(With Dan Levin) Common Value Auctions and the Winner's Curse, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2002.

Contributor of numerous chapters to books and of articles to scholarly journals. Also editor of Journal of Experimental Science and Management Science.

SIDELIGHTS:

Professor of economics John H. Kagel is a pioneer in the emergent field of experimental economics. Although in the 1970s it was possible to find a handful of experimental economics articles published in economics journals, in general, economics was considered a speculative science because it was not possible to conduct experiments using the empirical scientific method. In the following decades, experimental economics came into its own as a discipline, with the number of scholarly treatises skyrocketing and the launching of the Experimental Economics Journal. Kagel has been at the vanguard of this newly appreciated science, publishing numerous journal articles and jointly authoring or editing books on the topic, such as The Handbook of Experimental Economics and Common Value Auctions and the Winner's Curse.

Appearing as the new science was gaining momentum and acceptance was The Handbook of Experimental Economics, with each chapter focusing on experiments about a different topic. In addition to editing and coauthoring the introduction, Kagel contributed a survey of experimental research on auctions, the topic that would be the focus of his 2002 title, Common Value Auctions and the Winner's Curse. Among the enthusiasts of the handbook was John C. Bergstrom of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, who found that this book "does an excellent job of documenting the long and quite fascinating history of the development and application of experimental economics." Kenneth C. Williams, writing in the American Political Science Review, held a similar view, saying, "This volume gives the reader a greater appreciation for laboratory experiments as an integral part of theory confirmation and development … [and] is excellent in displaying the methodology's strong points and its shortcomings." Williams cited the introduction for particular praise, describing it as "splendidly done" and elaborating, "It gives the reader an adequate history of experimental economics, tracing its progress from its roots in the individual choice experiments of the 1930s up to the present. The introduction also provides an excellent overview of the major methodological issues that are discussed in subsequent chapters." Economic Record's Katerina Sherstyuk suggested that "although the volume undoubtedly has an academic flavour, it could be a highly intellectually inspiring, entertaining—although not at all light—reading for anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of economic phenomena."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, August, 1996, John C. Bergstrom, review of The Handbook of Experimental Economics, p. 834.

American Political Science Review, September, 1996, Kenneth C. Williams, review of The Handbook of Experimental Economics, pp. 632-633.

Economic Record, March, 1996, Katerina Sherstyuk, review of The Handbook of Experimental Economics, pp. 87-88.

Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2000, Joel Rosenblatt, "How Economists Help Predict Behavior Online," section B, p. 1.

ONLINE

Ohio State University Web site,http://www.ohio-state.edu/ (July 16, 2004), "John Kagel."

Scienza dell'Organizzazione Web site,http://www.organization-science.ailun.it/ (July 16, 2004), "Prof. Kagel's Information."