Transcending experimental boundaries

Identifying causal effects in economics is a challenging endeavour. Therefore, economists initiated a credibility revolution which attempts to create methods that truly identify the causal effect via the use of quasi-experimental methods. However, their methods receive criticism for lacking external validity. This paper considers the philosophical framework necessary for obtaining external validity. While positivism shares similarities with the approach in the credibility revolution, it is discarded due to its superficiality. Consequently, I argue for the necessity of accepting transcendental realism to obtain external validity in the credibility revolution. I show that adopting this framework facilitates the logical possibility of external validity as well as its methodological solutions.