I wonder, are there economists out there setting up and studying game worlds? Seems like a great way to run your simulation, and avoid the costs of phone surveys / data collection.
The most interesting economic work I know is for Eve Online. The company that operates Eve has hired an in-house economist to study the game's economy and publish periodic reports, which are available online - a quick search will turn them up. The reports generally focus on the economic effects of adding new content to the game - "here's how players reacted to the last patch."
It would be cool to see the two team up! Depending on the experiment, maybe you'd only need level designs. I assume this has only gotten easier with things like Minecraft.
Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/07/monocles.ars
Here's an interesting book that discusses some of the spatial economics of game worlds:
http://www.mappingcyberspace.com
Unfortunately, due to bitrot and available time, I don't have an extensive bibliography to give you beyond this right now.