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Title African Borders as Sources of Natural Experiments Promise and Pitfalls
Full text https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7mf4s4zv
Date 2015
Author(s) McCauley, John F; Posner, Daniel N
Abstract Africa's arbitrary country borders have been seized upon as sources of 'natural experiments': having randomly assigned people to different country treatments, differences in outcomes on either side of the border can then be attributed to the institutions, demographics, or policies put in place in each country. While methodologically attractive, the use of African borders as sources of natural experiments presents several potential pitfalls. We describe these pitfalls'some common to all studies that employ jurisdictional boundaries, some unique to African borders'and offer guidelines for overcoming them. We conclude that African cross-border studies can provide research advantages similar to well-executed comparative case studies, but that they frequently offer weaker inferential leverage than is claimed.
Subject(s) Political Science
Coverage 409 - 418
Publisher eScholarship, University of California
Type of publication article
Format application/pdf
Source Political Science Research and Methods, vol 3, iss 2
Rights public
Identifier qt7mf4s4zv
Repository Berkeley - University of California
Added to C-A: 2023-02-06;08:44:22