Skip Navigation


Political Analysis Advance Access originally published online on August 5, 2009
Political Analysis 2009 17(4):341-357; doi:10.1093/pan/mpp011
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/4/341    most recent
mpp011v2
mpp011v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Robinson, G.
Right arrow Articles by Krasno, J. S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Political Methodology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Political Analysis issue: Special Issue: Natural Experiments in Political Science [View the issue table of contents]

Observing the Counterfactual? The Search for Political Experiments in Nature

Gregory Robinson, John E. McNulty and Jonathan S. Krasno

Department of Political Science, Binghamton University, State University of New York, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000 e-mails: grobinso{at}binghamton.edu (corresponding author), jmcnulty{at}binghamton.edu, jkrasno{at}binghamton.edu

A search of recent political science literature and conference presentations shows substantial fascination with the concept of the natural experiment. However, there seems to be a wide array of definitions and applications employed in research that purports to analyze natural experiments. In this introductory essay to the special issue, we attempt to define natural experiments and discuss related issues of research design. In addition, we briefly explore the basic methodological issues around the appropriate analysis of natural experiments and give an overview of different techniques. The overarching theme of this essay and of this issue is to encourage applied researchers to look for natural experiments in their own work and to think more systematically about research design.

Authors' note: A previous draft of this essay was presented at the 2008 Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA. Thanks go to Chris Zorn for turning over the pages of Political Analysis to us and our contributors. The authors thank Ryan Enos, Seth Hill, Amy Lerman, Jeff Lewis, James Lo, Michael McDonald, Nate Monroe, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors belong to the authors.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.