Impact Assessment of Policies and Programmes

Governments, NGOs and the private sector implement numerous projects and programmes to promote development (ie to combat poverty, increase production, maintain natural resources, etc). There is an increased interest in evidence driven policy making and to learn what works and why. Understanding how 'evidence' is created is hence a critical component for academics and policy makers alike. In this course, we go from economic theory to the design of impact evaluations using quantitative methods. Students learn the (dis)advantages of the core methods used in the literature, critically review applications from development economics, and work to design their own. These methods include randomized experiments, difference in differences, instrumental variables and matching.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to: 

• compare and explain quantitative impact assessment methods;
• analyze and interpret existing impact assessments in relation to economic theory and policy objectives;
• analyze the quality and appraise the policy implications of impact assessments performed by others;
• design their own impact assessments;
• investigate impact assessment using existing studies and data.

Assumed Knowledge:
AEP-21306 Econometrics, MAT-20306 Advanced Statistics