Methodology Update: Randomised Controlled Trials, Structural Models and the Study of Politics-super-<xref ref-type="fn" rid="AN1">†</xref>

This paper explores how the combined use of Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) and Structural Models can improve the study of politics. We posit that randomized controlled trials can benefit from the insights provided by structural models, particularly for the type of questions posed in Political Science. Although structural models have been utilized scarcely in politics, the close relationship between theory and empirics required by structural models would help solving many of the current pitfalls of RCTs in political science. For instance, this approach can alleviate concerns of external validity often associated with experimental evidence. We finally present a real political science example to illustrate the implementation of this approach. Copyright 2011 , Oxford University Press.