Abstract

This systematic and large-scale reproduction effort tests the reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science, contributing to a growing literature on research credibility and self-correction in science. We reproduced original analyses and conducted robustness checks of 110 articles recently published in leading economics and political science journals, all of which have mandatory data and code sharing policies. We found that over 85% of published claims were computationally reproducible. In robustness checks, our re-analyses led to 72% of statistically significant estimates to remain significant and in the same direction, and the median reproduced effect size is (nearly) the same as the originally published effect size (that is, 99% of the published effect size). Additionally, six independent research teams examined 12 pre-specified hypotheses about determinants of robustness. Research teams with more experience found lower levels of robustness, and robustness correlated with neither author characteristics nor data availability.
Robustness rates by type of re-analysis, for originally significant and originally insignificant estimates, in the full sample and in the economics and political science subsamples
Fig: Robustness rates by type of re-analysis. Left panel, originally significant estimates; right panel, originally insignificant ones.

Two of this site's authors, Tomas Havranek and Zuzana Irsova, are among the 347. The article was published in Nature in April 2026. The full text on this site is the author's accepted manuscript, which the London School of Economics deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution licence; it is the fullest version of the article that is openly available.

Reference: Abel Brodeur, Derek Mikola, Nikolai Cook, and 344 others (2026), "Reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science research." Nature 652(8108): 151-156. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10251-x

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How to cite

Abel Brodeur, Derek Mikola, Nikolai Cook, and 344 others (2026), "Reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science research." Nature 652(8108): 151-156. doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10251-x

BibTeX 
@article{brodeur2026reproducibility,
  author  = {Abel Brodeur and Derek Mikola and Nikolai Cook and others},
  title   = {Reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science research},
  journal = {Nature},
  volume  = {652},
  number  = {8108},
  pages   = {151--156},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.1038/s41586-026-10251-x},
}