PUBPOL 6090

Empirical Strategies for Policy Analysis

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

Focuses on empirical strategies to identify the causal effects of public policies and programs. The course uses problem sets based on real-world examples and data to examine techniques for analyzing nonexperimental data including control function approaches, matching methods, panel-data methods, selection models, instrumental variables, and regression-discontinuity methods. The emphasis throughout, however, is on the critical role of research design in facilitating credible causal inference. The course aids students in both learning to implement a variety of statistical tools using large data sets, and in learning to select which tools are best suited to a given research project. (MPA-DA, MPA-DATSCI)

Enrollment Priority Recommended prerequisite: Econometrics using the languages of calculus and matrix algebra as well as mathematical statistics (using calculus) with coverage of asymptotic concepts (e.g. ECON 6190, AEM 7100, AEM 6120, or equivalent).

Program Requirements (MPA-DA, MPA-DATSCI)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025FA, 2024FA, 2023FA, 2022FA

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