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Theory and practice of program evaluation

Workshop description

The 'Theory and Practice of Program Evaluation' workshop is co-sponsored by the 'Fonds National de la Recherche' of Luxembourg and CEPS/INSTEAD. The workshop will take place on May 21st-25th, 2012 at NOVOTEL, 6 rue du Fort Niedergrünewald, L-2015 (Luxembourg).

The meeting aims at advancing the knowledge and expertise of PhD students as well as junior researchers in the field of impact evaluation, promoting a course on causal inference and program evaluation. Lecturers are Professors Guido Imbens (Harvard University), Fabrizia Mealli (University of Florence), and Alfonso Flores-Lagunes (State University of New York - Binghamton). A maximum of 12 young researchers will be pre-selected to present their papers on this topic.

The outline of the course will be the following:

i) The fundamental principles of program evaluation;
ii) The analysis of randomized experiments;
iii) The analysis of observational studies: unconfoundedness;
iv) Inference under unconfoundedness;
iv) Instrumental variables and noncompliance;
v) Principal stratification;
vi) Regression-discontinuity designs;
vii) Difference-in-differences models.

Previous knowledge of basic principles in statistics and econometrics are required at the undergraduate level.

Morning sessions will be used for lectures and during afternoons the course participants are invited to present papers related to causal inference and program evaluation. A maximum of 12 papers will be accepted for presentation. Participants who are interested in presenting their work must send their article in pdf format to Michela Bia (michela.bia@ceps.lu) by March 20th, 2012.

• Melia Luxembourg - 1, Park Draï Eechelen, L-1499 Luxembourg
• Hotel Ponte Vecchio - 271 Rue de Neudorf, L-2221 Luxembourg
• Hotel Vauban - 10, Place Guillaume II, L-1648 Luxembourg
• Hotel Francais - Places d'Armes 14, L-1136 Luxembourg

For questions about the course contact: Michela Bia (michela.bia@ceps.lu).

Important empirical questions in labor economics, public finance, industrial organization, and other areas of social sciences depend on causal effects of interventions and public policies. In the last decades, many research studies have been developed on the econometric and statistical analysis of such causal effects. The aim of the workshop is to provide the audience with the fundamental principles in impact evaluation, also discussing some of the most recent developments in this framework.

The three speakers are recognized lead researchers in the field of program evaluation:

• Guido Imbens is Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He was at Harvard from 1990 to 1997, then at UCLA and California-Berkeley. He has been nominated for teaching awards at both Harvard and Berkeley. He has taught courses at various Universities including the European University Institute in Florence, Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, CEMFI in Madrid, the Bureau of Economic Analysis. He has published extensively in cross-section econometrics, in particular on methods for program evaluation, instrumental variables, causality.
• Fabrizia Mealli is Professor of Statistics at the Department of Statistics "G. Parenti", University of Florence. Her main expertise is in Causal Inference and Inference with Missing Data Problems; she has taught courses in these areas at various Universities, including Bocconi University in Milan, Harvard University, Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
• Alfonso Flores-Lagunes is Associate Professor of Economics and Econometrics at the Department of Economics of State University of New York - Binghamton. His main expertise is in Econometrics/Applied Econometrics, Labor Economics, and Monetary Economics. His current projects address the estimation of causal effects and their applications, the estimation of spatial sample selection models and their applications, the economics of education and training programs.

Supported by the National Research Fund, Luxembourg