Natural "Natural Experiments" in Economics

Kenneth I. Wolpin and Mark Rosenzweig

Journal of Economic Literature, 2000, vol. 38, issue 4, 827-874

Abstract: The recent literature exploiting natural events as "natural experiment" instruments is reviewed to assess to what extent it has advanced empirical knowledge. A weakness of the studies that adopt this approach is that the necessary set of behavioral, market, and technological assumptions made by the authors in justifying their interpretations of the estimates is often absent. The methodology and findings from twenty studies are summarized and simple economic models are used to elucidate the implicit assumptions made by the authors and to demonstrate the sensitivity of the interpretations of the findings to the relaxation of some of these assumptions.

JEL-codes: C51 C90 D12 J22 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
Note: DOI: 10.1257/jel.38.4.827
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (253)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.38.4.827 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:jeclit:v:38:y:2000:i:4:p:827-874

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Literature is currently edited by Steven Durlauf

More articles in Journal of Economic Literature from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().