6.7 Natural experiments: Examples

  • Does indiscriminate violence increase insurgent attacks? (Lyall 2009)
    • “This proposition is tested using Russian artillery fire in Chechnya (2000 to 2005) to estimate indiscriminate violence’s effect on subsequent patterns of insurgent attacks across matched pairs of similar shelled and nonshelled villages.”
  • The Republicans Should Pray for Rain: Weather, Turnout, and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections (Gomez, Hansford, and Krause 2007)
  • Natural Disaster and Democratic Legitimacy: The Public Opinion Consequences of Chile’s 2010 Earthquake and Tsunami (Carlin, Love, and Zechmeister 2014)
  • From Ancien Règime to Capitalism: The French Revolution as a Natural Experiment (Acemoglu et al. 2007)
    • …institutional reforms (essentially the abolition of the ancien règime) brought by the French in Germany…were akin to an exogenous change in institutions unrelated to the underlying economic potential of the areas reformed…compare economic performance of areas reformed to those not reformed before and after the Revolutionary period to examine the impact of the reforms.
  • Natural Experiments Based on Geography (Keele and Titiunik 2016, Reproduction files)
  • When Natural Experiments Are Neither Natural nor Experiments (Sekhon and Titiunik 2012)

References

Acemoglu, Daron, Davide Cantoni, Simon Johnson, and James A Robinson. 2007. “From Ancien Règime to Capitalism: The French Revolution as a Natural Experiment.”

Carlin, Ryan E, Gregory J Love, and Elizabeth J Zechmeister. 2014. “Natural Disaster and Democratic Legitimacy: The Public Opinion Consequences of Chile’s 2010 Earthquake and Tsunami.” Polit. Res. Q. 67 (1): 3–15.

Gomez, Brad T, Thomas G Hansford, and George A Krause. 2007. “The Republicans Should Pray for Rain: Weather, Turnout, and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections.” J. Polit. 69 (3): 649–63.

Keele, Luke, and Rocı́o Titiunik. 2016. “Natural Experiments Based on Geography.” Political Science Research and Methods 4 (1): 65–95.

Lyall, Jason. 2009. “Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from Chechnya.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (3): 331–62.

Sekhon, Jasjeet S, and Rocı́o Titiunik. 2012. “When Natural Experiments Are Neither Natural nor Experiments.” Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 106 (1): 35–57.