Econometric Impact Analysis

'The course will introduce concepts and quantitative techniques to evaluate impacts of conservation measures, such as payments for environmental services, integrated conservation and development projects, and the enforcement of regulatory policies. Role of impact evaluation in guiding the design of agri-environmental conservation measures, i.e., in the context of regional agri-environmental payments or in development project design, e.g. works of the J-Pal. Students will be familiarized with: • randomized experimental trials, • instrumental variables, • regression discontinuity design, • difference-in-differences, • different types of matching. Overview of methods and related debates will be given and discussed with the students: Topics like black-box versus theory-based impact evaluation; counterfactual analysis, experimental versus non-experimental design, selection bias, impact heterogeneity, and estimation methods will be discussed using different case studies of agri-environmental policies.

At the end of the course students will be able to understand and apply the different state-of-the-art econometric impact evaluation techniques. Students will acquire the capability to evaluate diverse intervention contexts with a focus on agricultural and environmental projects and policy. Students will be able to design an evaluation of a policy intervention or environmental/development project.

At the end of the course students will be able to understand and apply the different state-of-the-art econometric impact evaluation techniques. Students will acquire the capability to evaluate diverse intervention contexts with a focus on agricultural and environmental projects and policy. Students will be able to design an evaluation of a policy intervention or environmental/development project. Examination procedure is a three-fold excercise: First, there will be a written test at the end of the semester, where students demonstrate their theoretical knowledge of the learned econometric methods. The questions in the test are based on the contents and exercises discussed in the lecture. Students are allowed to use non-programmable calculators and a formulary issued by the chair. The test comprises 30% of the grade and will be 60 minutes long. Second, there students need to write a term paper (15-20 pages) worth 60% of their grade. In the term paper they will demonstrate their capability of stating a research question applicable to an econometric impact evaluation. They will demonstrate their capability in choosing the appropriate data and method depending on their research question. Third, every student will hold a mid-term presentation comprising 10% of their grade to discuss and defend their choice of research question, data and method in front of their peers and teachers.

Bachelor's level econometrics or statistics

Lectures will be assisted by PowerPoint presentations in order to explain the theoretical concepts behind the methods discussed. Reading material for students will be provided to give students state-of-the-art examples of the applied methods. Theory will be illustrated by example exercises given by the lecturers on the whiteboard and in Stata/R on a computer. Additionally, half of the lectures will be allocated to excersises, where students can practice under supervision with the help of the lecturers. Also, participants will learn how to conduct an impact evaluation by doing a mock evaluation as a term paper. Going through the whole process of searching for and cleaning data to answer their impact evalutation question, they will get a hands on experience of the whole impact evaluation process. This will be done with guidance by the teaching staff.