Research Designs for Causal Inference

Catalog description

Does FDI in extractive industries increase perceived corruption? Do comprehensive smoke-free policies reduce tobacco consumption? Social scientists seek to answer causal questions like these every day, and this course introduces you to several research designs employed in such pursuits. You'll review the basics of research design, statistical inference, and linear regression before exploring counterfactuals, the potential outcomes framework, and random and as-if random assignment. Then you'll explore the ins and outs of experimental, natural experimental, and quasi-experimental designs using real and synthetic data. 001137