Prof Daniel Sturm and Dr Michael Callen

This course is compulsory on the Executive Master of Public Administration and Executive Master of Public Policy. This course is not available as an outside option.

There are no formal pre-requisites, but recommended advance readings will be distributed ahead of the course. Familiarity with the material covered in the EMPA/ EMPP Introduction to Statistics module is assumed.

The course introduces students to the quantitative evaluation of public policies. The focus of the course is on practical applications of techniques to test the effectiveness of public policy interventions. The course begins with an overview over the key benefits of randomized experiments in the evaluation of public policies. Next the course covers a number of techniques that are widely used in the evaluation of public policies, including difference-in-differences regressions, regression discontinuity approaches and matching. It concludes with an introduction to cost-benefit analysis.

A one-week modular teaching block. This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures delivered in one week. This year, some or all of this teaching may be delivered through a combination of virtual classes and lectures delivered as online videos.

One mock examination will be provided.

A full reading list will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

Project (50%, 2000 words) and online assessment (50%).

Please note that online assessments take place on the third Friday after module teaching concludes. The project will consist of a 2,000 word data analysis exercise due on the sixth Sunday after module teaching concludes. Further details will be provided at the Executive MPA/ Executive MPP programme inductions.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.