BERGAMO
Dati Generali
Periodo di attività
Syllabus
Obiettivi Formativi
The course aims to introduce students to the main theoretical and empirical tools used for data analysis and applied empirical research. The course will focus on the identification and estimation of causal relationships. At the end of the course, participants should be able to critically read scientific articles and start designing and performing their own analyses using the tools illustrated. The methods presented will allow students to address policy questions that are relevant from a social and economic perspective. For example: Does smoking cause cancer? Does an additional year of education increase future earnings? Does job training increase productivity? Does the minimum wage affect unemployment? Does more police presence reduce the crime rate?
Students will be introduced to applied microeconometrics toolkits, and by the end of the course, they will be able to search for policy-relevant questions, define a credible and appropriate research design, collect data, and perform empirical analysis using econometric software (i.e., Stata).
Prerequisiti
None, apart from the requirements obligatory for entrance to the course (https://ls-eda.unibg.it/en). In any case, it is strongly suggested to have attended the Advanced Econometrics course and to have a solid background in basic statistics and hypothesis testing.
Metodi didattici
The course combines traditional lectures with practical sessions, during which students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the techniques presented in the lectures. Both traditional lectures and practical sessions aim to foster participation and class discussion.
Verifica Apprendimento
The procedure and content of the exam will be the same for both attending and non-attending students.
Mode 1 (ONLY for those doing the exams in June and July)
- Take-home paper (50% of the final grade): must be submitted by May 31
- 1-hour written exam (2 questions) (50% of the final grade)
Mode 2 (for attending and NOT attending students) • 2-hours written exam (6 questions)
Contenuti
The course covers empirical strategies for applied policy questions. The main objective of the course is to introduce students to the empirical tools for counterfactual analysis. The course will discuss and present the identification strategies and estimation techniques that are relevant for identifying causal effects using observational data. Specifically, the course will cover the following topics:
- OLS
- Panel Data
- The ideal experiment: Causal effects and the selection problem
- Matching and Propensity Score
- Randomized controlled trials
- From observational data to natural experiments: instrumental variables
- Panel, difference-in-differences, and synthetic control models
- Regression discontinuity designs
- Quantile regressions
- Topics in impact evaluation
The emphasis will be on the practical implementation of each approach using Stata.