Seminar Public Finance (MW23.4) - Summer Term 2020

Empirical causal analysis - methods and applications to public policies

Content

In this seminar we will deal with empirical methods for identifying causal effects and their application to concrete (public) policies or events. After having clarified why it is so important to estimate causal effects rather than correlations (or accidental associations), we will take a closer look at those econometric methods most commonly used by economists to identify causal effects, such as panel-data techniques, controlled experiments, instrumental variables, differences-in-differences, and regression discontinuities. A focus will be put on the necessary prerequisites for applying the respective methods, possible problems and solution strategies as well as on the estimated effects (in relation to the specific research question).

Requirements

You will have to read and understand chapters of econometric textbooks as well as original empirical research papers as part of this course. A solid background in statistics and regression analysis is a necessary perquisite in order to successfully pass this course. We highly recommend taking "Empirical Methods" (MW24.1) before this seminar.

Important Remarks

The Chair of Public Finance follows a zero-tolerance policy with respect to plagiarism. In our seminar in the winter term 2018/19, more than 20% of the students failed because of plagiarism in their seminar papers. Please read again carefully the slides about plagiarism and conduct the test on "How to Cite/ How to Avoid Plagiarism" available in the Moodle-course "Approaches to Economic Sciences" ("WS2019-Approaches"). (If you do not have access to this Moodle-course, contact Fabian Könings.)

Guidelines

For guidelines and regulations, see hereExternal link

Topics

To be announced