Nobel economics prize goes to 'natural experiments' pioneers

FILE PHOTO: An outside view of the Norwegian Nobel Institute with a bust of Alfred Nobel, in central Oslo, Norway September 14, 2021. REUTERS/Nora Buli

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Economists David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens won the 2021 Nobel economics prize on Monday for pioneering "natural experiments" to show real-world economic impacts in areas from the U.S. fast-food sector to migration from Castro-era Cuba.

Unlike in medicine or other sciences, economists cannot conduct rigidly controlled clinical trials. Instead, natural experiments use real-life situations to study impacts on the world, an approach that has spread to other social sciences.