Dr Daniel Sturm and Dr Thomas Sampson

This course is compulsory on the MPA in Public and Economic Policy. This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (LSE and Sciences Po), MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Social Policy, MSc in Public Policy and Administration (LSE and Peking University) and MSc in Public Policy and Administration (Research). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The aim of this course is to reinforce the ability of students to use statistics and economics to evaluate policy questions. In many ways the course builds on the material covered in Quantitative Approaches and Policy Analysis (EC455) and Micro and Macroeconomics for Public Policy (EC440) and covers similar questions but at greater depth. At the beginning of the first term the course covers the key techniques to evaluate policy in more detail than in EC455. After this review of key regression techniques, the course covers a wide range of current public policy issues. Each lecture typically gives a brief introduction to a policy issue and then considers one or two recent empirical papers on this question in detail and draws out policy implications.

20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

Students will complete additional exercises, which will be marked, as formative assessment.

There is no single textbook for the course. James H. Stock and Mark W. Watson "Introduction to Econometrics", remains a very useful reference. A substantially more advanced reference for background reading is Joshua Angrist and Jorn-Steffen Pischke "Mostly Harmless Econometrics". A full reading list with the readings for each topic will be made available at the beginning of the course.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.