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This course will be of
particular interest to individuals with responsibility for or an interest in
rigorous evaluation of public programs and policies. This includes evaluation
researchers, policymakers, and agency staff who commission, monitor, or consume
evaluation research. This course is particularly timely in light of the increased
focus on evidence-based policy and recent international developments in the
methodology of program evaluation. The objective of the course is to provide
participants with an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of econometric
methods of program evaluation.
The course is designed to complement and build upon the evaluation course taught
by Professor Christoph Schmidt (University of Heidelberg) in August 2001, but
will be accessible to those who did not attend the previous course. The first
day of the course will present a general overview of the economic literature
on program evaluation. This will include a discussion of the questions of interest
in program evaluations, experimental and non-experimental methods, and evidence
from the literature on which methods work best in particular evaluation contexts.
The discussion will be general, with examples drawn from the North American
and European literatures on evaluating employment and training programs.
The second and third days of the course will delve into more detail on all of these issues. Highlights will include discussions of the importance of defining the policy parameters of interest when program impacts vary across individuals, alternative experimental designs, the use (and misuse) of matching methods and how these methods differ from standard regression analyses, along with the administrative relationship between performance standards and program impacts. It will also feature an extended discussion of the rapidly accumulating evidence in the literature on the factors that affect the performance of alternative non-experimental evaluation methods.
The program format is designed to maximize the opportunities for discussion and questions. Lecture notes will be distributed and a list of background readings provided. Participants may register for part 1 only (Day 1) or for the entire course.
About Professor Smith:
Jeffrey Smith is an international expert in program evaluation. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1996 and he joined the University of Maryland faculty in 2001. His research centres on methods for the evaluation of social programs such as job training for the disadvantaged. He has also written papers examining the labour market effects of university quality and the use of statistical treatment rules to assign persons to government programs. Recent publications include "Substitution and Dropout Bias in Social Experiments: A Study of An Influential Social Experiment" (with James Heckman, Neil Hohmann and Michael Khoo), Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2000, "The Economics and Econometrics of Active Labor Market Programmes" (with James Heckman and Robert LaLonde) in the Handbook of Labor Economics, Volume 3A 1999.
Early registration is advised as course places are limited.
Places will be allocated according to date of receipt of application
| Download Course Program and Registration Form: |  |
| Download Course Reading List: | |
Enquiries: Susan
Lindsay, SPEAR, Economics Program, ANU
E-mail: spear@coombs.anu.edu.au,
Tel: (02) 6125 0195
