96880 - APPLIED ECONOMICS

Academic Year 2023/2024

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Law, Economics and Governance (cod. 5811)

    Also valid for Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Law and Economics (cod. 5913)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the module, students: - know the tenets of economic theory to define policies aimed at tackling economic and financial problems; - know how to apply different methodologies to carry out empirical analyses, are able to analyze and interpret economic, financial and legal data, and can relate economic theory principles to data analysis to make economic politics decisions.

Course contents

This course covers applied methods ("econometrics" which, literally, means "economic measurement") for conducting economic and financial analyses. First, it covers the practical application of welfare economics using economic and financial investment appraisal techniques: cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and cost-utility analysis. We will explore how these techniques are applied to evaluate the impact of different patterns of resource allocation in the public sector. Second, it covers applications of modern techniques from micro-econometrics to other policy-relevant problems. These include applications of instrumental variable (IV), differences-in-differences, regression-discontinuity, quantile regression, and IV methods applied to randomised controlled trials (RCTs).

  1. Welfare Economics and its Practical Application in Economics and Finance
  2. Cost-Benefit Analysis
  3. Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
  4. Cost-Utility Analysis
  5. Applications of Econometrics: IV Methods
  6. Applications of Econometrics: Differences-in-Differences Analyses
  7. Applications of Econometrics: Regression Discontinuity Studies
  8. Applications of Econometrics: Modelling Distributions with Quantile Regression
  9. Applications of Econometrics: Analysing RCTs Using IVs

Readings/Bibliography

Journal papers, to be advised.

Reference texts:

Drummond MF, Sculpher M, Klaxton K, Stoddart GL and Torrance GW (2015) Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, 4th edn, Oxford University Press: Oxford. 

Mishan EJ and Quah E (2007) Cost-Benefit Analysis, 5th edn, Routledge: London.

Angrist J D and Pischke J-S (2015) Masterin Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect, Princeton University Press: Princeton.

Wooldridge JM (2020) Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 7th edn, Cengage: Boston (MA).

 

Teaching methods

Journal papers, to be advised.

Reference texts:

Drummond MF, Sculpher M, Klaxton K, Stoddart GL and Torrance GW (2015) Methods for the Economic Evaluation of Health Care Programmes, 4th edn, Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Mishan EJ and Quah E (2007) Cost-Benefit Analysis, 5th edn, Routledge: London.

Angrist J D and Pischke J-S (2015) Masterin Metrics: The Path from Cause to Effect, Princeton University Press: Princeton.

Wooldridge JM (2020) Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, 7th edn, Cengage: Boston (MA).

Assessment methods

Seminars and Essays

Students will present seminars, either individually or in pairs or small groups, and write a brief paper (no more than five pages) about their presentation. This part of the assessment carries a weight of 40% of the course.

Final Exam

The final exam will comprise short-answer and essay questions and is worth 60% of the total assessment. A practice exam will be provided during the term.

Teaching tools

Teaching resources on the Virtuale site for the course, including lecture slides. Traditional lectures and student seminars.

Office hours

See the website of Luke Brian Connelly