The Economic Approach to Policy Design

Course Director: Abhijeet Singh

To complete the specialization, ensure you finalize both BE0552 and BE0554. Any completed course from a discontinued specialization will be counted as a course in addition to the degree and can never be counted as an elective course within the degree. This does not apply to exchange students.

For questions email: academic.advisor@hhs.se

Overview

This course intends to introduce B.Sc. students to how economic research and tools feed into policy design in a range of different applied policy domains.

In this course, we will focus on three main policy questions:

1. How can economic policy spur innovation?

2. How can policy address global environmental challenges?

3. How can policy reduce inequalities of opportunity in advanced economies?

Each of these questions will be taught as a self-standing mini-module, and structured to sequentially cover (i) a general reading to frame the question, (ii) a broad overview of relevant theoretical considerations, (iii) an illustration of how key concepts/parameters are measured and, (iv) empirical analyses of potential policy responses.

The overarching goal of the course is to (i) provide a substantive introduction to selected policy areas; and, (ii) act as a capstone that illustrates how tools taught across economics courses seen in Year 1 and 2 are used in contemporary research and policy.

Format

The course is organized at the level of the mini-modules, each covering one substantive policy question above. Each module will have the following split:

1. 5 lectures that are delivered by the Course Director. Of these, the first lecture in each module is intended to be a ``big picture'' introduction which introduces the specific problem, why it is of interest to economists, and what the relevant frictions or market failures are that economic interventions might be designed to solve. The next four lectures all tie in to the design of specific policies and evidence for their effectiveness.

Some lectures will also feature practitioners or other researchers working on policy problems in the relevant area.

2. 2 seminar sessions on each module, delivered in smaller groups, will focus on material connected with the main lecture. This includes, e.g., discussion of written work and assignments, substantive group discussions, student presentations and clarification of materials covered in the lecture. Seminar sessions will be led by a Teaching Assistant with intermittent participation by the Course Director.

The course does not award points for attendance but attendance in all lectures and seminar sessions is strongly encouraged. Slides from each lecture will be made available on Canvas but these are not designed to be comprehensive and exams will assume familiarity with all material discussed in class.

Course Administrator: Kathrine.Abelson@hhs.se

There are three primary intended learning outcomes:

1. Understand, and evaluate, the connections between core economic concepts to concrete issues of policy design

2. Understand, and be able to critically evaluate, the informativeness of empirical research to address questions of policy effectiveness and policy trade-offs

3. Demonstrate an understanding of economic approaches to policy design, as applied in the three important areas of economic policy covered in the course.

A secondary outcome is for students to start to develop potential ideas that they can then write theses about. This is an outcome that will primarily be targeted through exposure to different policy issues and empirical approaches.

The course is primarily designed as an Economics specialization course. As such, a knowledge of undergraduate microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts will be assumed. It is designed to follow the BE0552 course taught by Robert Ostling, which is also a pre-requisite for being able to engage with some of the material in class. However, course enrolment can be opened also for students who have these pre-requisites even if they are not in the Econ specialization (e.g. if have completed similar courses in Econometrics and Principles of Economics as students elsewhere or they are doing Finance as a specialization). Note: since the course requires intensive interaction with research papers, it is not suitable for students without previous training in applied microeconometrics.

The class literature will be based on survey papers and public media (blogs, policy reports). No textbook purchases are required.

The full reading list for each module will be made available in advance of the first lecture. Links for downloading individual papers wil be made available through Canvas.

The course will have 80% weightage for an in-person final exam that will test the materials presented in class.

20% of the grades will be awarded based on the content of the hand-in assignments and student presentations throughout the course.

Find the course schedule in TimeEdit

Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).