Case study: German reunification

Why this case matters

Germany is one of the most recognizable synthetic-control examples in comparative political economy. It is a natural first example because researchers immediately understand the intervention narrative.

Study defaults in tscfbench

• dataset id: german_reunification
• treated unit: West Germany
• intervention year: 1990
• outcome: gdp

Suggested command

python -m tscfbench make-canonical-spec --study-ids germany --data-source snapshot --no-external -o germany.json
python -m tscfbench run-canonical germany.json -o germany_results.json

Teaching tip

This case is ideal for explaining donor pools, placebo logic, and why a benchmark should separate protocol from model implementation.