PUBPOL 4101 - Causal Reasoning and Policy Evaluation I

(crosslisted) ECON 3171

Fall. 3 credits. Student option grading.

Prerequisite: PUBPOL 3100 or equivalent.

M. Kapustin.

This course covers methods used by social scientists to identify causal relationships in data, with a focus on evaluating the effects of real-world policies. Many social science analyses–including in the economics fields of public, labor, health, and development-aim to answer these types of policy-related causal questions: What is the effect of having health insurance on someone’s health? Does the death penalty reduce crime? Will lowering class sizes increase students’ academic achievement? The goal of this course is to train you to become both a high-quality consumer and producer of this type of research. You will learn about several research designs and data analysis methods for identifying causal relationships in data, read and assess empirical papers that apply these methods, and apply these methods to datasets yourself.

Outcome 1: Assess the strengths and limitations of different research designs for estimating causal effects.

Outcome 2: Read and assess the strengths and weaknesses of empirical research answering causal questions.

Outcome 3: Apply the research designs covered in the course to data-based examples.