Saturday-Sunday, July 20 – 21, 2019

This two day workshop discusses econometric methods that identify close to causal effects when RCT, RDD or IV are not possible for the specific research project.  These methods provide researchers with more freedom to choose the relationship or policy to evaluate, so that empirical studies in economics can be more topic focused than method focused.  Specific methods will include various versions of difference in difference and the applications of shift instruments, etc. The instructor will use recent papers published in top journals as examples to illustrate that high quality empirical work is possible without using the golden standard methods.  Deep knowledge about the economic and policy context and rigorous and innovative approach are more important to provide evidence about causal relationships.

Learning outcomes:

1. Understand the reasoning behind and the rationale of policy impact evaluation.
2. Be able to determine the appropriate technique in order to rigorously evaluate the impact of an event in a less than ideal situation.
3. Be equipped to apply those techniques in a real-world setting.

Topics:

1. Refresher on causal effect, omitted variable bias, and reverse causality
2. Refresher on difference in difference and shift instruments
3. Case study of Paper 1: paper discussion
4. Stata exercise based on Paper 1
5. Case study of Paper 2: paper discussion
6. Stata exercise based on Paper 2

The instructor for the training is Dr. Sarah Dong of the ANU Indonesia Project.

We limit class size for effectiveness of training delivery. Participants will be selected if number of applications exceeds the optimum class size. Hence please register as soon as possible.

To register, please download this form, and send it to Dr. Saiful Mahdi (saiful.mahdi[at]unsyiah.ac.id) and cc it to Mirza Ardi (mirzardi86[at]gmail.com)

Registration will be is closed on June 15, 2019. The selected participants will get the confirmation via email on June 20, 2019.

The deadline for payment is on June 30, 2019.