This paper explores the questions of how economic theory can be used to design and interpret experiments and how experimental results can be used to construct and interpret economic theories. The relationship between economic theory and experiments is modeled and illustrated with examples from both theoretical and experimental work. The emphasis is on combing theory and experiment to the benefit of both.

This is a review article of Foundations of Human Sociality: Economic Experiments and Ethnographic Evidence from Fifteen Small-Scale Societies (Oxford University Press 2004) edited by Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Samuel Bowles, Colin Camerer, Ernst Fehr, and Herbert Gintis.

This paper provides an introduction to how knowledge is modeled in economic contexts and the role played by the concepts of knowledge and common knowledge in economic analysis.