Advanced Economic Policy Analysis using Big Data

The course is divided in two equal parts. The first part focuses on how to apply economic and statistical tools to analyze public policy. This includes discussions of why markets fail and the rationale for government interventions, a brief review of policy evaluation methods, and how to translate the results from these methods to do cost-benefit analysis of various policies. These issues are illustrated by in class going through detailed examples from research studies that evaluate public policies (e.g., in health, education, criminal justice, environment, and family policy). Since the course includes writing a term-paper, the lectures will also contain discussions of how to generate research ideas. The second part of the course concerns the practical use of software to analyze large datasets to evaluate public policy. This includes computational issues when dealing with big data, how to collect relevant data, survey and experimental design, and measurement error. These issues are illustrated by discussing in class research related to these issues.