Our purpose in this paper is to explain the manner in which experimental techniques may be systematically applied to the analysis of basic economic behavior. Our procedure will be: (1) to consider the obstacles that have been impeding systematic experimental analysis of economic behavior; (2) to describe a number of experimental techniques that have substantial relevance to economics but have not, to our knowledge, been previously noted in the economics literature; and (3) to propose specific experimental designs that will illustrate the manner in which an experimental economics can contribute to an understanding of economic behavior. Our discussion will be confined to the relationship between individual economic experiences and subsequent individual economic decision making.' The individual economic experiences to be discussed include the wage levels to which an individual economic decision maker has had access, his past employment opportunities, the amount and nature of the unearned income he has received, and the fluctuations in price level he has experienced. The types of economic decisions to be discussed include the decision to work for a given wage or to remain unemployed, the decision to buy at a given price or to save, and the decision to invest at a given interest rate or to hoard.