Seminar Public Finance (MW23.4) - Winter Term 2022/23
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 Science" ("WS2020-Approaches"). (If you do not have access to this Moodle-course, contact Patrick BareinzExternal link.)
| Timeframe | |
| June 2022 | Central registration |
|
21 July 2022 09.00 - 10.00 h |
For those students allocated to this seminar: Meeting and presentation of topics (via Zoom) |
| 29 July 2022 | Choice of preferred topics and preferred start date (see next item). The topics’ preferences serve as the basis for the allocation of topics. |
|
06 September 2022 or 20 September 2022 |
Start of your individual writing period. You can choose to receive your topic on either Tuesday, March 02, March 16, or March 30. |
|
31 October 2022 or 14 November 2022 (depending on starting date) |
Submission of the final version of your seminar paper (depending on start date). The deadline is midnight from Monday to Tuesday. |
| End of November 2022 | Time plan for the seminar (incl. allocation of discussants) |
| December 2022 | Seminar (blocked) |
Guidelines
For guidelines and regulations, see hereExternal link
Topics
To submit your topic preferences and review the slides after the information event on 21 July 2022, please go to https://moodle.uni-jena.de/External link ("Master Seminar Public Finance"). You will also find further information and materials on the seminar there.