Signals of the future of work (Oct. 2021)

Nobel Prize-winning natural experiments

This month we were delighted to see that David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for their pioneering use of “natural experiments” in economics. As in other social sciences, many of the big questions in this field deal with cause and effect. Economic research has long been hampered, however, by the inability to carry out randomised controlled trials. This year’s laureates have blazed a new trail, proving that it is possible to answer many of these big questions through natural experiments. Under this approach, researchers can study scenarios in which chance events or policy changes result in