Causal Inference for Poverty Alleviation

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In this course, students will learn about statistical methods that economists use to evaluate anti-poverty policies. Methods covered will include randomized controlled trials (RCTs), instrumental variables (IV), IV within RCTs, difference-in-differences (DID), and regression discontinuity designs (RDD). For each method, students will (i) be introduced to an example of a poverty-related question that has been studied using the method, (ii) learn the econometric theory supporting the method, and (iii) apply the method to real-world data in Stata/R.