Causal Analysis

“Does premarital cohabitation protect marriage?” “Does reducing class size improve elementary school education?” “Is there racial discrimination in the market for home loans?” We often use associations to claim causal effects. This course provides a broad introduction to causal analysis. We will address causal inference from observational and quasi-experimental research designs. Topics include instrumental variables estimation, difference-in-difference models, regression discontinuity, matching, propensity scores, heterogeneous treatment effects, and fixed effects models. The prerequisite of this course is SOC 2020 or equivalent.