Applied Public Economics
Academic year 2016/17
Francesca Zantomio
Aims
This research-oriented course will enable students to conduct applied studies in the
area of public economics, with a focus on impact evaluation of public intervention and
the assessment of its distributional consequences. The course involves hands-on
sessions where students will be required to work with the STATA software and the
EUROMOD microsimulation model.
Programme
Programme evaluation
1. The Evaluation Problem
2. Randomised Experiments
3. Observational Studies
4. Selection on observables strategies
5. Matching algorithms
6. Before-After Design
7. Difference in Difference Design
8. Regression Discontinuity Design
Distributional analysis of public intervention
1. Inequality and Poverty: theory and measurement
2. Public Intervention through the tax-benefit system
3. Microsimulation models: potential and limitations
Prerequisites:
 Microeconometrics.
 Registration with the UK Data Archive.
 EUROMOD access procedure completed.
Reading List - Textbooks
Lee, M. J. (2005) Micro-Econometrics for Policy, Program and Treatment Effects,
Oxford, Oxford University Press
Lambert, P. J. (2001) The Distribution and Redistribution of Income, Third Edition,
Manchester University Press
O'Donnell, O., van Doorslaer, E., Wagstaff, A., Lindelow, M. (2008) Analyzing Health
Equity Using Household Survey Data : A Guide to Techniques and Their
Implementation. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Reading List – Further references
Blundell, R. (2011) Tax Policy Reform: the role of empirical evidence, Journal of the
European Economic Association, 10(1), 43-77.
Blundell, R., Costa Dias, M., Meghir, C, Van Reenen, J. (2004) Evaluating the
employment impact of a mandatory job search assistance program, Journal of the
European Economic Association, 2(4), 569–606.
Blundell, R., Costa Dias, M. (2009) Alternative Approaches to Evaluation in Empirical
Microeconomics, J. Human Resources 44 (3): 565-640.
Chen, S., Van der Klaauw, W. (2008) The work disincentive effects of the disability
insurance program in the 1990s, Journal of Econometrics 142 (2), 757-784.
Fleurbaey, M., Schokkaert, E. (2011) Equity in Health and Health Care, Chapter Sixteen
in: Mark V. Pauly, Thomas G. Mcguire and Pedro P. Barros, Editor(s), Handbook of
Health Economics, Elsevier, 2011, Volume 2, Pages 1003-1092.
Heckman, J. J.. (2001). Micro Data, Heterogeneity, and the Evaluation of Public Policy:
Nobel Lecture, Journal of Political Economy, 109(4), 673–748
Imbens, G. W., Wooldridge, J. M. (2009) Recent Developments in the Econometrics of
Program Evaluation, Journal of Economic Literature, 47(1): 5-86.
Wagstaff, A., van Doorslaer, E. (2000) Equity in health care finance and delivery,
Chapter 34 in Handbook of Health Economics, Elsevier, 2000, Volume 1, Part B, Pages
1803-1862.
Additional reading material might be assigned during the course.