Econometrics for Program Evaluation: Theory and Practice Using Stata

About

Providing effective evaluation of economic, social and medical programs has become an increasingly important requirement for both public and private institutions. This school seeks therefore, to provide participants with the requisite tools, both theoretical and applied, for the correct implementation of modern micro-econometric methods for implementing program evaluation using Stata. As such, the program has been developed to encompass both: standard statistical methods of program evaluation: regression-adjustment, matching, selection-models and difference-in-differences methodologies; and the more advanced econometric techniques: for example, instrumental variables, endogenous regression-adjustment and regression discontinuity design.

The school opens with an introductory one day course (Module A) to the statistical package Stata, during which participants will be provided with the necessary tools to enable them to use Stata independently and actively participate in the applied empirical Lab sessions during the course of the week. Module B (Introductory Econometrics) running from day two to four, offers participants the opportunity to acquire, or simply refresh, the econometric techniques required to follow and actively participate in the empirical sessions during the course of the week. Both Modules A and B are optionally, attendance will depend on the individual participant’s background.

At the end of the school participants are expected to be able to master complex evaluation design by: identifying the type of data required in their specific policy framework; evaluating which specific econometric method is more appropriate for the analysis in hand; and finally extracting policy recommendations from the obtained results. Participants should leave the course being in a position to autonomously implement, with the aid of the Stata routines utilized during the sessions, the theories and methodologies discussed during the course of the school.

Target group

Researchers and professionals working in public and private institutions needing to undertake econometric program evaluation analysis using micro data. Although these methodologies are commonly used to evaluate policy interventions in, for example, the labour market, investment activities of enterprises, education policy, regional development, etc., they can in fact be used across a variety of studies, such as public health sector evaluation, which aim to estimate the ex-post impact of a given intervention or project on specific targets.

Course aim

The summer school offers participants the opportunity to learn the essential theoretical and applied tools required for the correct implementation of modern micro-econometric methods for policy evaluation. As such, the workshop focuses on the Regression, Matching and Difference-in-differences approaches to Quantitative evaluation of policy programs. In the latter stages, the emphasis switches to the important issues of: Instrumental-Variables, Selection Models and Regression Discontinuity Design.