Simulation-Assisted Ex Post Facto Design

Simulation-assisted ex post facto design is a non-experimental observational approach in which the researcher examines already-occurred events or conditions using existing records and then supplements the empirical analysis with computational simulation to approximate counterfactual scenarios that cannot be observed in reality. The design retains the retrospective, naturalistic character of classic ex post facto research while leveraging agent-based, Monte Carlo, or system-dynamics simulation to address the inherent confound limitations of purely archival work.