Objective of the Course:
A dominant feature of empirical research in economics in the past two decades has been the “credibility revolution” in empirical research that has prioritized the generation of credible causal estimates of the impact of policies and programs.
This course will present an overview of the major techniques for impact evaluation (with a practical guide to using them and the assumptions under which they are valid) and focus on the design, execution, analysis, and interpretation of randomized field experiments.
This course will also show how qualitative methods can be combined with quantitative methods to both measure the impact of interventions and understand the processes and mechanisms underlying that impact. It will briefly introduce methods to collect qualitative data such as open-ended interviews, Participatory Appraisal Methods, Focus Group Discussions, and textual data. It will also introduce methods for analyzing that data, including coding systems and structures, and text-as-data methods.
And it will show how qualitative methods can be integrated with quantitative methods by studying papers using mixed-methods analysis for different topics and contexts.
Who is it for?
This short course is designed for researchers, teachers, and consumers of impact evaluation and will provide opportunities for discussion of practical issues in implementing each of these techniques.
The goal is to get participants comfortable with reading and evaluating papers using these techniques, implement them in your own research, and teach them to your students in advanced undergraduate and master’s courses.