[Commentary] A HARD NATURAL EXPERIMENT TO FATHOM: A TESTAMENT TO THE INCREASING DIFFICULTY OF CONDUCTING RELIABLE SURVEYS?
Addiction 103 (2), 192–193.

The paper by Mäkelä et al. [1] adds to the important tradition of studying ‘natural experiments’ in alcohol policy, a tradition that is especially strong in the Scandinavian countries [2]. Had the results followed the almost invariable pattern that reduced taxes lead to increased consumption, there would have been much less over which to discuss and puzzle. The authors are to be applauded for publishing these unexpectedly negative results. Arguably, studies such as this have unique value by forcing the field to question received wisdom and, I suggest, also traditional research methods.
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