Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. Also required is 60 credits in economics and 15 credits in statistics (or a closely related subject).

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student is expected to have a good knowledge of various methods for evaluating the effects of politically determined reforms and measures, and of the strengths and limitations of the methods.

Content

Content: This course aims at describing and problematising those methods that are used in order to find out whether political decisions have intended (or unintended) effects on different phenomena in society. In particular, the different microeconometric methods for evaluation that have emerged in the last 15 years are being discussed. The course aims at illustrating the "basic problem of evaluation", i.e. that we can observe what happens after a reform, but not what would have happened if the same reform had not been implemented. Taking this as a starting point, the various methods used are explained in order to find out what are the effects of different kinds of measures and reforms, despite this basic problem. In particular, the intention is to show what the strengths and weaknesses of various methods are by using real examples from different areas of research. Examples of questions that can be analysed using these methods are how the number of students in a class affects the study results of the students, how sickness absence is affected by requirements for a doctor's certificate or how the time parents spend with their children is affected by the introduction of daddy-months.

Instruction

The course consists of lectures.

Assessment

The examination of the course consists of take-home assignments and a written exam.