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According to a widely held economic hypothesis, imposing strict environmental regulations reduces economic growth. This hypothesis is undermined by the fact that the states with the strictest environmental regulations also have the highest economic growth. This fact does not show that environmental regulations promote growth, however, since ______.
Which of the following, if true, provides evidence that most logically completes the argument below?
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| According to a widely held economic hypothesis, imposing strict environmental regulations reduces economic growth. |
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| This hypothesis is undermined by the fact that the states with the strictest environmental regulations also have the highest economic growth. |
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| This fact does not show that environmental regulations promote growth, however, since ______. |
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The argument starts with a widely held theory, then presents contradictory evidence, but warns us not to jump to the opposite conclusion. We need to find a reason why the correlation doesn't prove causation.
The fact that states with strict environmental regulations have high economic growth doesn't prove that environmental regulations cause economic growth.
The argument uses a classic correlation vs. causation structure. It shows that while the original hypothesis might be wrong, we can't automatically assume the reverse is true without considering alternative explanations for why strict regulation states also have high growth.
Logically Completes - We need to find a statement that explains why the correlation between strict environmental regulations and high economic growth doesn't prove causation (that regulations promote growth)
The key claims are about correlation vs causation - we know states with strictest regulations have highest growth (correlation), but we need to explain why this doesn't mean regulations cause growth
We need to find alternative explanations for why states with strict environmental regulations also have high economic growth. The correct completion should provide a reason that explains this correlation without suggesting the regulations themselves cause the growth. We're looking for third factors, reverse causation, or other logical explanations that break the causal link.