Course overview
This course deepens the critical thinking and practical reasoning of economics applied to the formal impact evaluation of economic and public policy.This course builds on students knowledge of economic theory and econometrics and broadens the scope of policy evaluation to qualitative methodologies and mixed methods. It has a strong focus on applications and case studies. Particular attention is paid to the practical implementation of econometric methods. Students will use economic tools to implement an impact evaluation including designing, selecting, and implementing appropriate methods, and ultimately communicating the results to policy-makers. Case studies and empirical examples will be discussed, providing a framework for the issues students will research and address in their reports.
Course learning outcomes
- Quantify the causal effect of policy interventions
- Determine and implement the appropriate methodology in order to evaluate the impact of policy interventions in a broad real-world policy context
- Formulate a theory of change linking policy interventions to expected outcomes and formulate corresponding evaluation questions
- Conduct an impact evaluation from the early stages of design to implementation and communication of results
- Use specialised software to conduct statistically robust evaluations
- Demonstrate understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies and usefulness of mixed methods