Syllabus for Causality and Effect
Evaluation within Public Administration
August 6th – 23th, 2013
Below you will find the lesson plan and syllabus for the summer course “Causality and Effect
Evaluation within Public Administration”. Please note that the schedule changes week to week. All
Mondays are lesson-free.
During the 1st and 2nd week there will be lab sessions in the computer room. These lessons are
voluntary. The exam will not test your STATA skills. However, I will strongly encourage all
students to participate in the lab sessions. These sessions will provide a more practical angle to the
estimation strategies discussed in the course and will enable you to use the estimation strategies
yourself for assignments or your master thesis.
Because the labs are voluntary, there is no syllabus for these lessons. If you are a STATA beginner,
however, you might find it useful to borrow or buy a beginners guide to STATA such as “STATA –
en praktisk introduktion” by Kim Sønderskov (for danes) or “Data Analysis using STATA” by
Ulrich Kohler and Frauke Kreuter. In the first lab session I will make a short introduction to
STATA and a few of the key features. However, to become a proficient STATA user you will have
to spend some time on your own familiarizing yourself with STATA.
There are three books on the syllabus list which need to be bought (e.g. at PB) or borrowed for the
course. As the books are somewhat expensive, my recommendation would be to buy Wooldridge
(as we will be using this book continuously during the course) and perhaps borrow/share/copy
Angrist & Pischke and Pawson & Tilly.
Wooldridge, Angrist & Pischke and a few of the article contains some mathematical derivation.
While for some these derivations can be helpful in understanding the material points, for others they
will be counter-productive. It is not my intention to go through these derivation (expect perhaps one
or two), and you will not be tested on your mathematical skills in the exams. For those of you who
find these derivations difficult I will therefore advice you not to be discouraged. Please focus your
energy on the material points of the text .
Lesson
1
Date
Tuesday,
August 6th
Time
12.15 – 3
pm
Place
Building
1327
Room
024
Topic
Introduction
The rise of
evaluation as a
discipline
Syllabus
(Nutley, Davies and Smith
2000) ch. 1-2 (41 pp)
(Pawson and Tilly 1997)
Introduction & ch. 1 (37 pp)
(Wooldridge 2011) Ch. 1 (18
pp)
Total pages: 96
2
Wednesday, 12.15 – 3
August 7th
pm
Building
1327
Room
024
The logic of
experiments
(Angrist and Pischke 2009) ch.
1-2 (21 pp)
(Pawson and Tilly 1997) ch. 23 (52 pp)
(Snow 1855) (163 pp)
3
Thursday,
August 8th
12.15 – 3
pm
Building
1327
Room
024
Recap of OLS
regression
Total pages: 236
(Wooldridge 2011) Ch. 2-4
(skip theorem 2.1, appendix
2A and appendix 3A) (137 pp)
(Wooldridge 2011) pp. 203205 (3 pp)
(Naff and Crum 1999) (13 pp)
Total pages: 153
C1
Friday,
August 9th
9.15 am –
12
Building
1331
Small
computer
room
Computer
session 1
How to use
STATA?
OLS in STATA
4
Tuesday,
August 13th
12.15 –
15 pm
Building
1327
Room
024
Fixed effects
Diff-in-diff
Reforms as
natural
experiments
(Wooldridge 2011) ch. 13-14
(skip 13.5, appendix 13A &
appendix 14A) (48 pp)
(Angrist and Pischke 2009) ch.
5 (skip appendix 5.4) (25 pp)
(Boyne, Farrell, Law, Powell
and Walker 2003) Ch. 1-3 (48
pp)
(Schlotter, Schwerdt and
Woessmann 2011) (42 pp)
(Branch, Hanushek and Rivkin
2012) (43 pp)
Total pages: 206
C2
Wednesday, 9.15 am –
August 14th 11 am
Building
1331
Small
computer
room
Computer
session 2
Fixed effects
Diff-in-diff
in STATA
5
Wednesday, 12.15 – 3
August 14th pm
Building
1327
Room
024
Diff-in-diff
(cont.)
IV estimation
Hvidman & Andersen 2013
(24 pp)
(Lassen and Serritzlew 2011)
(21 pp)
(Wooldridge 2011) ch. 15 (41
pp)
(Alonso and Lewis 2001) (19
pp)
(Becker and Woessmann
2009) (67 pp)
Total pages: 172
C3
Thursday,
August 15th
9.15 am –
11 am
6
Friday,
August 17th
9.15 am –
12
Building
1331
Small
computer
room
Building
1327
Room
024
Computer
session 3
IV (2sls) in
STATA
Performancerelated pay
(PRP)
(Miller 2005) (23 pp)
(Andersen & Pallesen 2008)
(20 pp)
(Glewwe, Ilias and Kremer
2010) (22 pp)
(Martins and Centre for the
Economics of Education 2010)
(37 pp)
(Weibel, Rost and Osterloh
2010) (25 pp)
7
Tuesday,
August 20th
12.15 –
15 pm
Building
1327
Room
024
Autonomy/
decentralization
Total pages: 127
(Pollitt 2005) (27 pp)
(Mikkelsen & Nielsen 2013)
(30 pp)
(Andersen 2008) (25 pp)
(Clark et al. 2011) (32 pp)
8
Wednesday, 9.15 am –
Building
Public service
Total pages: 114
(Perry and Wise 1990) (6 pp)
August 21st
12
1327
Room
024
motivation
(PSM)
(Perry, Hondeghem and Wise
2010) (10 pp)
(Kim, Vandenabeele, Wright,
Andersen, Cerase, Christensen,
Desmarais, Koumenta,
Leisink, Liu, Palidauskaite,
Pedersen, Perry, Ritz, Taylor
and De Vivo 2013) (24 pp)
(Andersen, Heinesen &
Pedersen 2012) (46 pp)
(Alonso & Lewis) 2001
(Belle 2013) (11 pp)
9
Friday,
August 23rd
9.15 am –
12
Building
1327
Room
024
EXAM
Thursday
August 29th
Yet to be
decided
Yet to be
decided
Students
research
ideas/exam
preparation
Total pages: 96
A 1-2 page synopsis of a
research proposal from each
student group. Send to the
whole class august 21st, 9 am
at the latest.
Pages in total: 1201
(B) = burrow at the library or buy online or in Political science bookstore PB
(M) = buy the collection of extracts from books in the Political science bookstore PB
(O) = find article online (http://en.statsbiblioteket.dk/) using your login from statsbiblioteket
(W) = working paper. Will be sent directly to your email address shortly before the course begins
(D) = download directly. Link provided
Reference List
(D)
Allen, Rebecca (2010) Does school autonomy improve educational outcomes? Judging the
performance of fundation secondary schools in England DoQSS Working paper no. 10-02
http://repec.ioe.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp1002.pdf
(W)
Andesen, L. B., E. Heinesen & L. Pedersen (2013). How does public service motivation among
teachers affect student performance in schools? Revised version of 2012 APPAM conferencepaper
(O)
Andersen, L. B. and T. Pallesen (2008) Not Just for the Money? How Financial Incentives Affect
the Number of Publications at Danish Research Institutions, International Public Management
Journal, 11, 1, 28-47.
(O)
Andersen, Simon Calmar (2008) Private Schools and the Parents that Choose Them: Empirical
Evidence from the Danish School Voucher System, Scandinavian Political Studies, 31, 1, 44-68.
(O)
Alonso, Pablo and G. B. Lewis (2001) Public Service Motivation and Job Performance: Evidence
From the Federal Sector, American Review of Public Administration, 31, 4, 363.
(B)
Angrist, J. D. and J. r. S. Pischke (2009) Mostly harmless econometrics : an empiricist's companion.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
(O)
Becker, Sascha O. and L. Woessmann (2009) Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of
Protestant Economic History, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124, 2, 531-96.
(O)
Belle, Nicola (2013) Experimental Evidence on the Relationship between Public Service Motivation
and Job Performance, Public Administration Review, 73, 1, 143-53.
(M)
Boyne, G. A., C. Farrell, J. Law, M. Powell, and R. M. Walker (2003) Evaluating public
management reforms : principles and practice. Buckingham [England]; Philadelphia: Open
University Press.
(D)
Branch, Gregory F., Hanushek, Eric A., and Rivkin, Steven G. Estimating the Effect of Leaders on
Public Sector Productivity: The Case of School Principals. 2012.
Ref Type: Unpublished Work
http://www.nber.org/papers/w17803.pdf?new_window=1
(D)
Clark, Melissa A., Phillip Gleason, Christina Clark Tuttle & Marsha K. Silverberg (2011) Do
Charter Schools Improve Student Achievement? Evidence from a National Randomized Study.
Working paper. Mathematica Policy Research.
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/pdfs/education/charterschools_WP.pdf
(O)
Glewwe, Paul, N. Ilias, and M. Kremer (2010) Teacher Incentives, American Economic JournalApplied Economics, 2, 3, 205-27.
(O)
Hvidman, Ulrik & Simon C. Andersen (2013 forthcoming) The Impact of Performance
management in Public and Private Organizations, Journal of Public Administration Research and
Theory
http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org.ez.statsbiblioteket.dk:2048/content/early/2013/04/22/jopart.mut019.f
ull.pdf+html
(O)
Kim, S., W. Vandenabeele, B. E. Wright, L. B. Andersen, F. P. Cerase, R. K. Christensen, C.
Desmarais, M. Koumenta, P. Leisink, B. C. Liu, J. Palidauskaite, L. H. Pedersen, J. L. Perry, A.
Ritz, J. Taylor, and P. De Vivo (2013) Investigating the Structure and Meaning of Public Service
Motivation across Populations: Developing an International Instrument and Addressing Issues of
Measurement Invariance, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 23, 1, 79-102.
(O)
Lassen, David Dreyer and S. Serritzlew (2011) Jurisdiction Size and Local Democracy: Evidence
on Internal Political Efficacy from Large-Scale Municipal Reform, American Political Science
Review, 105, 2, 238-58.
(D)
Martins, Pedro S. and Centre for the Economics of Education. Individual Teacher Incentives,
Student Achievement and Grade Inflation. 1-3-2010. Centre for the Economics of Education.
Ref Type: Report
http://ftp.iza.org/dp4051.pdf
(W)
Mikkelsen, M. F. & P. Nielsen (2013) Administrative Decentralization and Public Service
Performance: A Contextual Model. Working paper (presented at APPAM 2012)
(O)
Miller, G. J. (2005) The Political Evolution of Principal-Agent Models, Annual review of political
science., 8, 203-26.
(O)
Naff, K. C. and J. Crum (1999) Working for America: Does Public Service Motivation Make a
Difference?, Review of Public Personnel Administration Review of Public Personnel
Administration, 19, 4, 5-16.
(M)
Nutley, S. M., H. T. O. Davies, and P. C. Smith (2000) What works? : Evidence-based policy and
practice in public services. Bristol: The Policy Press.
(B)
Pawson, R. and N. Tilly (1997) Realistic evaluation. London: Sage.
(O)
Perry, James L., A. Hondeghem, and L. R. Wise (2010) Revisiting the Motivational Bases of Public
Service: Twenty Years of Research and an Agenda for the Future, Public Administration Review,
70, 5, 681-90.
(O)
Perry, James L. and L. R. Wise (1990) The Motivational Bases of Public Service, Public
Administration Review, 50, 3, 367-73.
(M)
Pollitt, C., (2005) Decentralization: A Hardy Perennial in The Oxford Handbook of Public
Management eds. Ewan Ferlie, Laurence E. Lynn, Jr & Christopher Pollitt, Oxford University Press
(O)
Schlotter, Martin, G. Schwerdt, and L. Woessmann (2011) Econometric Methods for Causal
Evaluation of Education Policies and Practices: A Non-Technical Guide, Education Economics, 19,
2, 109-37.
(D)
Snow, J. (1855) On the mode of communication of cholera. London: John Churchill.
http://books.google.dk/books/about/On_the_Mode_of_Communication_of_Cholera.html?id=N0_AAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y
(O)
Weibel, A., K. Rost, and M. Osterloh (2010) Pay for Performance in the Public Sector-Benefits and
(Hidden) Costs, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 20, 2, 387-412.
(B)
Wooldridge, J. (2011) Introductory econometrics. [S.l.]: South-Western.