What Do Nobel Prize and Your Business Have in Common? Natural Experiments

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A natural experiment is a type of causal analysis that has been widely adopted by many organizations and research fields. It was such a game-changer that the pioneers of the idea were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in economics. This story will explain how these natural experiments are different from regular experiments and how you can use this idea at your organization. Natural experiments are built on the same principles as regular experiments, except that everything is under control. For example, imagine you are in the leadership of a company in 2019 and you are considering remote work. The COVID-19 pandemic created an environment for natural experiments. When the pandemic happened, people whose jobs allowed them to work from home started working from home. This allowed us to understand the benefits and drawbacks of remote work much better.