Policy Evaluation
Objectives
This course will give students an overview of the main policy evaluation methods. The perspective will be microeconomic and applied. We only employ econometric derivations when needed to help intuition. The course aims to strengthen the methodological background of students interested in conducting applied research.
General characterization
Code
2181
Credits
3.5
Responsible teacher
Nikita Melnikov
Hours
Weekly - Available soon
Total - Available soon
Teaching language
English
Prerequisites
n/a
Bibliography
Angrist, Joshua D., and Jo¿rn-Steffen Pischke (2008): Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion, Princeton University Press.
Scott Cunningham (2021): Causal Inference: The Mixtape, Yale University Press.
Teaching method
Replication and presentation of the results of a research paper. Will be done in groups (size depending on class size) for the duration of approximately 40 minutes. Each group will prepare slides and replication files that will be posted on the class website. Replication files will include data files, commented Stata do-file(s) referring to the tables in the paper, and corresponding Stata log file(s). During the class presentation and discussion the students should: (i) provide motivation to the research question and produce a clear presentation of the empirical results, (ii) comment on empirical methods used, and (iii) provide appropriate responses to questions from the class.
Evaluation method
15% of the grade : Replication and presentation of the results of a research paper.
15% of the grade : A referee report (to be done in small groups).
30% of the grade: 2-3 problem sets (to be done in small groups).
40% of the grade: Final exam.
Subject matter
The course will begin by defining the policy evaluation question, introducing the idea of causality and randomization. It will then cover propensity score matching, difference-in- differences, instrumental variable estimation, and regression discontinuity design. For each topic we will have students replicating results in a well-known empirical paper and presenting their efforts in class.