Sharpening the Effectiveness of Natural Experiments as an Analytical Tool

Harriet Duleep ()
Additional contact information
Harriet Duleep: College of William and Mary

No 6682, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The importance of using natural experiments in economic research has long been recognized. Yet, it is only in recent years that natural experiments have become an integral part of the economist's analytical toolbox, thanks to the efforts of Meyer, Card, Peters, Krueger, Gruber, and others. This use promises to shed new light on a variety of public policy issues and has already caused a major challenge to some tightly held beliefs in economics, most vividly illustrated by the finding of a positive effect of a minimum wage increase on the employment of low-wage workers. Although currently in vogue in economic research, the analysis of natural experiments could be substantially strengthened. This paper discusses several methodological approaches that would increase the precision and reliability of the results stemming from the analysis of natural experiments. A theme underlying all of these proposals is how best to measure the effect of a treatment on a variable, as opposed to explaining a level or change in a variable.

Keywords: natural experiments; regression format; treatment effect; precision; extraneous group-specific effects; minimum wage; divorce laws; military service; Julian Simon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J08 J18 J38 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp6682.pdf (application/pdf)

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:iza:izadps:dp6682

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().