96562 - PLANNING AND EVALUATION OF HEALTH POLICY

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the course, the student has developed the skills supporting evidence-based decision making, and has adequate knowledge of the evaluation approaches and their applications to the different health promotion programs.

Contenuti

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the empirical tools used for policy evaluation. The focus is on the robustness and credibility of causal inference methods, including randomized policy experiments, model-based counterfactuals, Difference-in-Differences, Regression Discontinuity Design, Propensity Score Matching, and Event Study designs. These will be applied to the assessment of real-world and simulated policy interventions.

Key topics include:

• Defining outcomes in relation to policy goals

• Testing and validating the assumptions underlying quasi-experimental methods

• Addressing violations of identification assumptions

• Applying multiple evaluation methods and reconciling conflicting estimates

• Exploring heterogeneity in policy impacts across subpopulations

Empirical applications will span a variety of health policy domains, including:

• Information and awareness campaigns

• Fiscal interventions (e.g., taxes and subsidies)

• Regulatory approaches and bans

• Behavioural and “nudge” policies

Through practical case studies and hands-on exercises, students will gain the skills necessary to design, implement, and critically assess policy evaluations using contemporary empirical techniques.

Testi/Bibliografia

The course will be mostly based on lecture notes and chapters/papers provided through the e-learning platform

However, some key and very useful books are:

Cameron, A. C. & Trivedi, P. K. (2022). Microeconometrics Using Stata. Volumes I and II. Second Edition. Stata Press.

Angrist, Joshua D., and Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2014. Mastering'metrics: The path from cause to effect. Princeton University Press.

Journals

A selection of journal articles will be recommended and distributed during the course

Metodi didattici

The course consists of a combination of case studies and empirical demonstrations using STATA ® codes. Each topic will be introduced by a recap of the theoretical background to the methods.

The focus in class will be on the statistical outputs and not on the programming, but Stata codes will be provided to the students to replicate and adapt the policy evaluations.

STATA is freely available to registered students, who can download the software and the license at this link using their UNIBO student credentials.

For each case study, appropriate background references will be provided.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The final grade will be based on a written exam (1.5 hours) administered through the EoL platform (students can use their laptop in the exam room, or opt for a pen-and-paper exam if they prefer) structured in two parts:

a) Multiple-choice questions on the empirical issues faced when implementing empirical evaluations of health policies (50% of final grade)
b) A section on the interpretation and critical evaluation of the outputs from a health policy evaluation (50% of final grade)

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

This module provides a set of case studies on the evaluation of actual programs and policies aimed at promoting health. The e-learning platform will enable access to interactive contents, including real data-sets, codes, and case study reports.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Mario Mazzocchi