Course taught in English
1. Knowledge and understanding: This course aims to present the theory and practice of empirical research in public economics with particular emphasis on the assessment of public programs in the market economies. The course will develop analytical knowledge of the main tools of quantitative evaluations which underpin public interventions efficiency and outcomes. Public policy applications include the main programs in welfare (i.e. health, education, and social sector).
2. Applying knowledge and understanding: The knowledge of the main tools for evaluating public programs will enable students to critical assess the programs and reforms in welfare state. Furthermore, the development of analytical skills on the efficiency and the outcomes’ evaluation of the different public policy will allow students to deal with the problems related to public policy design and decision in real-life situations.
3. Making judgements: TThe acquisition of analytical competences concerning the tools of economic evaluation will enable students to autonomously assess the social and economic implications of different public intervention in welfare sector as health, education, social insurance etc.
4. Communication skills: The student will develop communication skills and an appropriate technical language, with special regard to the analysis of the macroeconomic and microeconomic context, concerning program evaluation which are relevant for public decisions, so as to be able to convey technically rigorous information to experts and non-experts. Evaluation of the communication skills, in a concise and/or analytic form, will take place formally during the written exam, leaving the possibility to evaluate students’ communication skills also through interactive interventions during the in-class lectures.
5. Learning skills: Students’ learning skills will be stimulated through a proper interaction and discussion on the general knowledge and skills and on their application to case studies.
The course is held through traditional teaching tools with lectures, carried out with the support of slides and additional educational material that is made available to students through the Studium platform. In order to consolidate the understanding of the topics covered and the analytical skills of the students at the end of the discussion of the individual topics in the program, there will be classroom exercises carried out by the teacher. If the course will be delivered in a mixed or remote way, the necessary changes can be introduced with respect to what was previously stated, in order to comply with the program envisaged in the syllabus
Although not mandatory, a good knowledge of statistical and econometric tools at intermediate level is strongly recommended. Furthermore, some knowledge of R_CRAN software is endorsed.
Normally mandatory
The goal of the course is to provide the students with a practical guide that covers the broad array of methods for public policy evaluation. The first part of the course covers the econometrics tools useful for economic evaluation and ex ante evaluation methods. The second part of the course is about ex post evaluation, i.e. the assessment of the effects of a public program strategy after its implementation. The key issue here is to control for all those extra factors that may affect or bias the conclusion of the public program and the assessment of the study. The main topics of this part cover the benchmarking analysis and the experimental approach. In particular, we analyze the different quasi-experimental techniques (difference-in-differences, propensity score matching, regression discontinuity design, and instrumental variables) that can be used when faced with observational data. We rely empirical examples on R-CRAN, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The course consists of 20 lectures, each lasting 2 hours.
Main textbook
Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017). Statistical tools for program evaluation: Methods and applications to economic policy, public health, and education. Springer.
Other useful readings:
Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017). The state of applied econometrics: Causality and policy evaluation. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 3-32.
Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015). Causal inference in statistics, social, and biomedical sciences. Cambridge University Press.
Cerulli, G. (2015). Econometric evaluation of socio-economic programs. Advanced Studies in Theoretical and Applied Econometrics Series, 49. Springer
European Commission. (2013). The resource for the evaluation of socio-economic development.
European Commission. (2014). Guide to cost-benefit analysis of investment projects.
European Commission. (2015). Guidance document on monitoring and evaluation.
World Bank. (2011). Impact evaluation in practice.
Further readings will be provided during the course and made available via the “Studium” course webpage
Argomenti | Riferimenti testi | |
1 | Public program evaluation: introduction and overview | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017) |
2 | First Part: Ex ante evaluation of public program | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
3 | Financial appraisal of public program: first part | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); European Commission (2013); World Bank (2011); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
4 | Financial appraisal of public program: second part | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); European Commission (2013); World Bank (2011); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
5 | Budget impact analysis for the assessment of public project | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); European Commission (2013); World Bank (2011); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
6 | Cost Benefit Analysis and Cost Effectiveness Analysis | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017).; European Commission. (2014); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
7 | Cost Benefit Analysis and Cost Effectiveness Analysis (second part) | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017).; European Commission. (2014); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
8 | Case study: An ex ante analysis of a real public investment project | Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
9 | Second part: Ex post Evaluation of public program | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
10 | Benchmarking using parametric and non parametric frontier analysis: empirical tools in R environment (first part) | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
11 | Benchmarking using parametric and non parametric frontier analysis: empirical tools in R environment (second part) | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
12 | Case study: Some empirical applications to the health and education sector | Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
13 | Causal inference and counterfactuals for public policy evaluation: introduction | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Cerulli, G. (2015);Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015); World Bank (2011); Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
14 | Causal inference and counterfactuals for public policy evaluation: econometric and empirical issues for experimental assessment | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Cerulli, G. (2015);Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015); World Bank (2011); Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
15 | Randomized selection methods: first part | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Cerulli, G. (2015);Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015); World Bank (2011); Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
16 | Randomized selection methods: second part | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Cerulli, G. (2015);Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015); World Bank (2011); Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
17 | Randomized selection methods: third part | Josselin, J. M., & Le Maux, B. (2017); Cerulli, G. (2015);Imbens, G. W., & Rubin, D. B. (2015); World Bank (2011); Athey, S., & Imbens, G. W. (2017); Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
18 | Randomized selection methods: guidelines to conduct an empirical analysis in R environment | Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
19 | First case study: An empirical assessment of a healthcare program | Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
20 | Second case Study: An experimental evaluation of a educational program | Teaching Material provided on Studiun website |
Evaluation is always carried out by means of a written exam test. The evaluation can also be carried out in remote way if the epidemiological conditions require it.
Because the evaluation is carried out by means of a written exam is strongly suggest reviewing the tests and the exercises will be provided during the course and made available via the “Studium” course webpage: