EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMY AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING: COMMON AND DIFFERENT

The last 30-50 years of the development of economic science were marked by the rapid development of new directions of research, and interdisciplinary, which today is increasingly entering the social sciences, only strengthened this trend. Behavioral economics, global political economy, experimental economics, social engineering, information economics, post-industrial economics, etc. In particular, global institutional changes, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war with Russia led to the actualization of the concept of "social engineering" in the domestic socio-economic and political space, and the results of experimental economics research are actively used not only in fundamental and theoretical research, but also in real economic practice. which unfolds the status of economic science in a completely different way - economics becomes a truly empirical science. The article examines theoretical and methodological aspects of experimental economics and social engineering. The content of the "social engineering" category was clarified, a comparative analysis of approaches was carried out, and the methodological principles of theimplementation of social engineering were determined. Thus, it was found that the vast majority of domestic scientists consider social engineering from the standpoint of a system of constructing a new social reality, a specific social practice of managing industrial objects, and an experimental technology for changing social life. Experimental economics, as one of the newest directions of economic science, is analyzed in the context of key studies of Nobel laureates, representatives of experimental economics. Despite certain similarities between social engineering and experimental economics, the authors conducted a critical analysis of these two directions, identified fundamental differences in approaches, limits, and opportunities of each.