Cancelled Seminar: Empirical Evaluation of Public Policies
Course content
A large strand of the empirical microeconomic literature is devoted to the evaluation of public policies in various domains (education, health, labor, justice, household finance, etc.). Economic theory can help predict how policies should affect economic outcomes, but many questions remain open. Measuring empirically what is the impact of policy reforms is therefore key to improve our microeconomic models as well as the design of future policies.
There is a wide range of econometric methods available for such empirical policy evaluations: economists exploit exogenous variation in the implementation of policy changes (differences-in-differences, event studies, regression discontinuity designs, etc.), or implement policy changes themselves in a controlled environment (randomized control trials).
More and more, these policy evaluations are implemented in tight connection to microeconomic models: researchers do not merely try to estimate the effect of a policy on a couple of outcomes, but rather try to understand the underlying mechanisms, and estimate core parameters. This is key to extrapolate the results from the study of one specific policy reform to other settings: for instance, should a policy have the same impact when implemented on a small or a large scale?
In this seminar, students will conduct their own empirical project, related to the economic literature on the evaluation of public policies. Ideally, the students will conduct their own empirical analysis, using publically available datasets, or administrative datasets that they might have access to. One possible idea is to replicate and extend a published research paper. Examples of topics include:
- What is the impact of various features of the education system on students’ performance?
- How public opinion perceives public policies, such as the carbon tax?
- What is the impact of Basic Income on poverty, and on employment?
- What are the effects of mortgage credit availability on borrowing?
- What is the effect of the minimum wage on wages and employment?
- What are the effects of earmarked parental leaves on men and women’s career, or on children?
- How well do various health insurance systems reduce inequality in health?
- What are the effects of corporate tax on firms’ taxable profit?
- Do sanctions on migrants deter migrations?
- Does private prison contracting increase recidivism?
- Ect.
The seminar is primarily for students at the MSc of Economics
Additional for the learning outcome specified in the Master curriculum the student is after completing the seminar expected to be able to:
Knowledge:
- Know and understand the main methods for econometric data analyses
- Know the state of the economic literature on some key policy
questions
Skills:
- Identify open questions about key public policies
- Critically examine the economic literature on a specific topic
- Implement, and interpret econometric data analyses
- Write and present orally an empirical analysis in a clear language
- Identify limitations in econometric analyses, and suggest
solutions
Competencies:
- Apply econometric methods to answer concrete, policy relevant questions
- Develop own independent empirical project
- Have constructive, critical discussions about ongoing research projects
- Independently identify and acquire new research-based knowledge
At the seminar the student is trained independently to
- identify and clarify a problem,
- seek and select relevant literatur,
- write a academic paper,
- present and discuss own paper with the other students at the
seminar.
The aim of the presentations is, that the student uses the
presentation as an opportunity to practice oral skills and to
receive feedback. The presentations is not a part of the exam and
will not be assessed.
Mandatory activities in the seminar:
- Kick-off meeting
- Finding literatur and defining the project
- Writing process of the seminar paper
- Presentation of own project and paper
- Giving constructive feedback to another student´s paper
- Actively participating in discussions at the presentations and
other meetings.
There is no weekly teaching/lecturing and the student cannot expect
guidance from the teacher. If the teacher gives a few introduction
lectures or gives the opportunity for guidance, this as well as
other expectations are clarified at the kickoff meeting.
Process:
It is strongly recommended that you think about and search for a
topic before the semester begins, as there is only a few weeks from
the kick-off meeting to the submission of the project description/
agreement paper.
The seminar project paper must be uploaded in Absalon before the
presentations, as the opponents and the other seminar participants
have to read and comment on the paper. It is important that you
upload a paper that is so finalized as possible due to the fact
that the value of feedback and comments at the presentation is
strongly associated with the skill level of the seminar paper.
After the presentations, you can with a few corrections improve the
seminar paper by including the feedback and comments emerged during
the presentations. It is NOT intended that you rewrite or begin the
writing of the full project AFTER the presentation has taken
place.
Basic references for empirical methods include:
- Angrist, J. and J. Pischke (2009): Mostly harmless econometrics. Princeton University.
- Cameron, C. and P. Trivedi (2005): Microeconometrics. Methods and applications. Cambridge University Press.
- Cameron, C. and P. Trivedi (2010): Microeconometrics using Stata. Stata Press.
- Wooldridge, J. (2002): Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. MIT Press.
-
To seek inspiration for a concrete topic, students can look at recent publications in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Students can also search for publically available datasets in the online archives of articles published in economic journals such as: The American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, the Journal of Applied Econometrics and the Journal of Political Economy. Examples of available datasets will be discussed during the introductory meeting.
Students should have sound knowledge of microeconomic theory
(Microeconomics I and II), and empirical methods (Econometrics I
and II).
Students will also benefit from previous or concurrent
participation in courses on Labor Economics, Advanced
Microeconometrics and Applied Econometric Policy
Evaluation.
BSc in Economics or similar
- Kick-off meeting: Week 36
- Deadline for submission of commitment paper / project
description: No later than 1 October.
1 october
- Deadline for uploading a seminar assignment paper in the Digital
Exam portal: No later than one week before the presentations.
- Presentations: 20 November - 11 December
- Exam date: 20 December at 10.00 AM - latest uploading of Seminar
paper to the Digital Exam portal for assessment.
- Deadline for assessment: 24 January
All information regarding the seminar is communicated through
Absalon including venue. It is very important that you by yourself
log on to Absalon and read the information already when you are
registered at the seminar.
For enrolled students: More information about registration, schedule, rules etc. can be found at Master (UK) and Master (DK).
More information about seminars is available at Seminars (UK) and Seminars (DK).
Read about the study programme and curricula at MSc in Economics
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Written examination
- Type of assessment details
- A seminar paper in English that meets the formal requirements
for written papers stated in the curriculum of the Master programme
and at KUNet for seminars.
__ - Aid
- All aids allowed
for the seminar paper.
The teacher defines the aids that must be used for the presentations.
__
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- External censorship
__
Criteria for exam assessment
Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the seminar and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes in the Curriculum of the Master programme.
To receive the top grade, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material.
- Category
- Hours
- Project work
- 186
- Seminar
- 20
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- AØKK08428U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedulegroup
-
and venue:
Go to "Remarks"
Exam and re-sits: Go to "Exam". - Capacity
- One class of max. 20 students
- Studyboard
- Department of Economics, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Economics
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Daphné Jocelyne Skandalis (16-6663726a706730756d637066636e6b754267657170306d7730666d)
Teacher
Daphné Jocelyne Skandalis (daphne.skandalis@econ.ku.dk)
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