Methods of Economic Evaluation and Experiments
Spring 2016
Course responsible
Elina Lampi
elina.lampi@economics.gu.se
Learning outcomes (1):
After completion of the course, the student shall be able to:
1. Have a good understanding of how to use observational
data to analyze economic problems.
2. Have a good understanding of stated preference methods
and analyze the responses to stated preference methods
with relevant econometric methods.
3. Have a good understanding of and be able to analyze an
impact evaluation study.
Learning outcomes (2):
4. have a good understanding of and be able to design an
economic experiment, both in the lab and in the field.
5. have a good understanding of the limitations of the
methods covered in this course, and the potential limitations
of individual behavior in the survey or experimental situation.
Methods and applications
The red thread of this course can be summarized as below
for all three parts of the course:
Namely……
1.Different methods of applied economics
2.Hands on applications to learn the methods
(labs/experiements)
3.Discussion of limitations of the methods
Annika´s part:
The aim of the first part of the course is to provide an
overview of the most common empirical methods currently
used in applied economics.
We start with a discussion of the evaluation problem, and
then proceed to discuss randomized controlled experiments,
how to evaluate ‘natural experiments’, and matching
methods.
The students will learn the pros and cons of the different
methods, how to apply them, and what to think about when
doing so.
Elina´s part (1)
1. Stated preference methods and how to use them. How to
ask people´s willingness to pay (WTP) for a non-existing
(new) good or for a change in the quality of an existing good.
2. The methods we will talk about are Contingent Valuation
method (CVM) and Choice Experiment (CE) method.
3. Common applications are to ask WTP for public goods,
such as for new medicines, new treatments (health
economics), improvements in environmetal quality e.g. in
water or in air (environmental economics), and to maintain a
cultural buildning or have free access to a museum (cutural
economics).
Elina´s part (2)
You will learn:
1. CVM and CE and how we can use them?
1. Econometrics behind CVM and CE.
1. Labs of both CVM and CE.
2. After the course you should be able to analyze and
interpret!! CVM and CE data sets and be aware of
both strenghts and weaknesses of the methods.
Christina´s part (1):
Until recently, economics was widely regarded as a nonexperimental science that had to rely on observation of realworld economies rather than controlled laboratory or field
experiments.
In the third part of the course you will learn the basics of using
experiments to understand economic phenomena and get a
first glimpse into behavioral economics.
Christina´s part (2):
After a general introduction to the development of
experimental economics and its foundations we will look at
three of the most prominent research areas in behavioral and
experimental economics – social, risk and time preferences –
and some of the most famous laboratory experiments.
You will learn to understand what makes a good experiment
and how an experiment is designed.
In the end, we will turn to experiments in the field and how
they differ from and complement the work in the lab. The aim
of this part is to enable you to design your own experiment
both in the lab and in the field.
Formalia (1)
Examination is based on assingments for each 3 parts of the
course.
Annika has a lab (25 p.).
Elina has a litterature review question (10 p.) and labs (30p.)
Christina has a literature review question (10 p.) and an
assingment where you will designing a laboratory experiment
and a field experiement (25p.)
Formalia (2)
You will work pairwise but you need to change your partner
for each moment of the course. So you will work with 3
different partners (one for Annika´s part, one for Elina´s part,
and one for Christina´s part).
I will leave a list here where you can sign up with whom you
will work with.
If problem to find a partner we will fix that together. But try
first yourself!
In total you can get 100 points from the assingnments.
(25+10+30+10+25 points).
Formalia (3)
In order to pass the course you need to:
1.Work with 3 different partners.
1.Submit your work by e-mail for corresponding teacher in
time. And send everything through ”Urkund”
2.Get at least 50% correct for each 5 assinments. But you
also need to get 60 points in total out of the 100 possible
points. I.e. 60 % correct in total is required for Pass.
1.For High Pass you need to get 80 points out of the max
100 points.
Formalia (4), Time for questions:
Annika: 27th January 10.00-11.00 in Annika´s office, (E526).
Elina: 11th of february 10.00-11.00 in Elina´s office, (D-613).
Christina: 19th of February, 10.00-11.00 in Christina´s
office, (D-606).
Formalia (5), Deadlines to submit
assignments:
Annika: 28th of January, at 24.00
Elina: 14th of February, at 24.00
Christina: 21st of February, at 24.00
Formalia (6), rules for submitting
assignments:
If you miss the dead line you will fail the whole course. You
can submit the missing assingment after the course is
finnished but then (so that it will be fair against those who
did submit in time), it is only possible to get pass (and not
high pass) for the whole course.
Decide the new submission date with the corresponding
teacher.
The exceptions are if you get sick or have other serious
reasons not to be able to submit in time. In that case,
contact Elina by mail as soon as possible.