Pre-registration
Mexico's December-1994 Tequila Crisis — peso devaluation against the USD by >= 50%, IMF / US Treasury rescue package, real-GDP contraction of >= 6% in 1995, and a Laeven-Valencia-coded systemic banking crisis 1994-1996 — is the canonical EM-currency-and-banking-twin-crisis case of the early 1990s. The hypothesis is that Mexico 1994-1996 meets the canonical multi-metric checklist on at least 4 of 5 metrics.
Falsification criterion — what would disprove this
This hypothesis is considered falsified if:
Evaluate every canonical_metrics row against its pre-registered source, window, and threshold. The hypothesis is SUPPORTED if at least 4 of 5 metrics are MET. It is REFUTED if even counting all pending metrics as favorable cannot reach 4 MET metrics and the confirmed failures cross the pre-registered refutation guardrail. Otherwise the verdict is INCONCLUSIVE until pending data or pending evaluation metrics are resolved.
formal test & threshold
test: multi_metric_checklist_canonical_banking_crisis threshold: MET >= 4 of 5; REFUTE when MET + PENDING_DATA + PENDING_EVAL < 4; refutation guardrail=1
Method
- Template
multi_metric_checklist- Clustering
none- Sample
- 1 countries · 1990 – 2000
- Evidence type
- canonical_case_multi_metric
Canonical-case checklist evaluator reads canonical_metrics and multi_metric_falsification; no regression model is estimated. Each metric is scored against its pre-registered source, window, and threshold before applying the count rule below.
Data
| Variable | Source | Transform |
|---|---|---|
real_gdp outcome | world_bank_wdi:NY.GDP.MKTP.KDtier 2 | peak_to_trough |
nominal_xr_usd outcome | world_bank_wdi:PA.NUS.FCRFtier 2 | peak_to_trough |
● ready · ● pending · ● reconstruct-needed
Detailed result card
Result card — banking_crisis_mexico_tequila_1994_canonical
Verdict: refuted
Reason: 2 metrics failed and 2 pending; cannot reach 4
Pre-registered rule: SUPPORT if >= 4 of 5 metrics met; REFUTE if <= 1 met (impossible to hit support).
Counts: 1 MET · 2 NOT_MET · 2 PENDING_DATA · 0 PENDING_EVAL
Primary country: MEX
Metric-by-metric
| # | Metric | Status | Observed | Threshold | Notes |
|---|---|:---:|---:|---|---|
| 1 | peso_depreciation_1994_1995 | MET | 292 (1994) [max_in_window_fallback] | >= 50% depreciation | |
| 2 | real_gdp_decline_1995 | NOT_MET | 5.91 (1995) [peak_to_trough_pct_decline] | >= 6% decline | |
| 3 | imf_us_treasury_programme | PENDING_DATA | | yes/no — yes counts as breach | No usable vintage for: imf:SBA_MEX_1995 |
| 4 | systemic_banking_crisis_coded | PENDING_DATA | | coded yes | No usable vintage for: owid:systemic-banking-crises |
| 5 | current_account_reversal | NOT_MET | -0.415 (1995) [max_in_window_fallback] | >= 5 pp of GDP swing 1994-1996 | |
Claim
Mexico's December-1994 Tequila Crisis — peso devaluation against the USD by >= 50%, IMF / US Treasury rescue package, real-GDP contraction of >= 6% in 1995, and a Laeven-Valencia-coded systemic banking crisis 1994-1996 — is the canonical EM-currency-and-banking-twin-crisis case of the early 1990s. The hypothesis is that Mexico 1994-1996 meets the canonical multi-metric checklist on at least 4 of 5 metrics.
Interpretation
The canonical-case pattern match is not satisfied: only 1 of 5 metrics met their thresholds, below the support threshold of 4. Note that for canonical-case hypotheses, a refutation can indicate either that the hypothesis is genuinely weak, that the metric set is mis-calibrated (too strict), or that the data substrate has systematic gaps. Review the PENDING_DATA / PENDING_EVAL metrics before accepting the refutation.
Steelman live concerns
See hypotheses/steelman/banking_crisis_mexico_tequila_1994_canonical.md for the strongest opposing arguments. Canonical-case multi-metric evidence is a pattern match, not a causal identification — the result card should be read as 'outcome trajectory matches the predicted pattern to degree X' rather than 'policy P caused the outcome'.
Provenance
Vintages pinned in manifest.yaml. Full per-metric diagnostics in diagnostics.json. Machine-readable results in metric_results.parquet.
Strongest opposing argument
Every hypothesis ships with its charitable opposing argument. The framework earns credibility by handling objections at their strongest, not weakest.