Classes

University of Michigan

PubPol 744: Economics of the Public Sector

This course examines major issues in economic policy. The aim of the course is to understand the reasons for government intervention in the economy, the extent of that intervention, and the ways in which people will likely respond given economic policy. We will consider both the economic policies that government might undertake that require revenue and the issues inherent in designing a tax system to collect revenue. We will analyze the successes, failures, and compromises inherent in government interventions in a variety of areas such as education, healthcare, social security, environmental, and tax policy. Throughout we will use both sound theory and empirical evidence to better understand the complex set of incentives that economic policies can create for individuals and businesses. For each issue, the goal will be to apply what you have learned in previous economics classes or through the required textbook to analyze current policy issues and learn to make well-reasoned, analytic arguments in favor, or against, particular policies.

Teachers College Columbia University

EDPA 6002: Quantitative Methods for Evaluating Educational Policies and Programs

This advanced master’s course addresses a key issue in evaluating education programs and policies: determining whether a policy causes an impact on student trajectories that would not have occurred in absence of the policy. The course will cover experimental and quasi-experimental techniques used to attribute causal relationships between educational programs and student outcomes. Students will become sophisticated consumers of quantitative educational research and will practice statistical techniques in problems sets. There will be an exam and a final project. Prerequisites: Successful completion of 4002 and 5002 or equivalent and familiarity with the Stata statistical software package. No prior exposure to causal inference methods is expected.

EDPA 5002: Data Analysis for Policy and Decision Making II

This is an intermediate‑level course in non‑experimental quantitative research methods, especially those related to education policy. The class examines such topics as residual analysis, modeling non‑linear relationships and interactions using regression, logistic regression, missing data analyses, multilevel models, and principal components analysis. Prerequisite: Students should have completed at least one graduate‑level course in applied statistics or data analysis (e.g., EDPA 4002) and have experience with Stata software.