Advanced Analysis in the Economics of Education

Catalog description

This course will review current papers in the economics of education, with a focus on policy research related to the provision and regulation of publicly provided education. The course pays special attention to: i) the use of causal research designs in answering questions relevant for policy, and ii) the application of economic principles to issues in education. The course is designed as a seminar for Ph.D. students to build skills in critiquing studies that employ experimental and quasi-experimental methods, such as randomized control trials, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, etc. The papers covered in the course will examine questions in education policy through the perspective of economics and issues related to trade-offs, incentives, the analytic process, and the distribution of costs and benefits. Students will also be asked to consider applications of these methods and their related assumptions, in their own work. The course is intended for students who have a solid understanding of methods typically used in econometrics or statistics to estimate causal effects. Prerequisite: This course is primarily intended for Ph.D. students who have taken or who are currently taking a course on experimental and quasi-experimental methods of causal inference and who have had an introductory course in economic perspectives in education research.