Program Evaluation

This course introduces you to the tools used by social scientists and policymakers to evaluate the impact of government policies. The courses objective is to teach you how to use these tools well enough to feel comfortable evaluating the quality of program evaluations that you are likely to review during your careers. The course begins by examining the elements of a cost/benefit analysis. Some of the principles we discuss during this part of the course are identical to those used by managers in a private firm when they consider whether to invest in new plant or equipment, to train their workers, or to initiate new human resource practices. But it also is important to recognize the differences between cost-benefit analyses of social programs and of private sector investments. Here we examine how the concepts of consumer and producer surplus discussed in your economics courses guide us in formulating evaluation questions and choosing appropriate outcome measures. Most of the course examines the strategies for evaluating the impact that government policies have on alternative outcomes. The key question here is what would have been the outcome had individuals, neighborhoods, state, etc., not been exposed to the policy. The impact of the policy is the difference between the actual outcome and this counterfactual outcome. Much social science research demonstrates that obtaining credible estimates of these impacts can be difficult. During this part of the course, we discuss how to plausibly address some of the more common difficulties encountered by program evaluators. Prerequisites: PP31000 and PP31100 or equivalent statistics coursework.