Topics in Microeconometrics (ECO-AD-MICROMETR)
ECO-AD-MICROMETR
| Department |
ECO |
| Course category |
ECO Advanced courses |
| Course type |
Course |
| Academic year |
2024-2025 |
| Term |
BLOCK 3 |
| Credits |
.5 (EUI Economics Department) |
| Professors |
|
| Contact |
Simonsen, Sarah
|
| Sessions |
|
Purpose
Abstract
This 10-hour course will cover three topics in the Economics of Education. This is a broad field, that includes the contribution of an education system to economic growth, income inequality and social mobility. Economists study education given the importance of these outcomes for society, and the useful skills economists can contribute. First, there are parallels between the study of private and public sector markets. Second, at an individual level, decisions about human capital investment rely on standard economic theory: trade-offs between current costs and future benefits, dynamic decisions, and risk. Third, theoretical economic modelling and causal effects can provide more insights and basis for policy than the descriptive analysis commonly used in other fields.
Description
This course will focus on three key and interesting topics within the broad field of the Economics of Education. Each topic will be covered in depth, including the theoretical framework, key empirical contributions, and research at the frontier.
The course will also include two general skills elements. First, how to conduct a thorough literature review, including identifying limitations and areas for future research. Second, how to logically structure an empirical academic article.
- Human capital formation: this topic will study how multiple skills evolve and interact dynamically over the lifecycle. Also, how these skills are affected by the quality, quantity and timing of investments, and family background.
- Peer effects: how class- or school-mates affect the educational and broader outcomes of a student. This topic will study the identification challenges to estimating peer effects, and empirical evidence from experiments and natural experiments.
- School choice and competition: most education systems around the world include some mechanism so that parents' preferences are one input into where their child attends school. Most education systems encourage competition between schools to attract pupils, for example where funding follows the pupil, or schools face accountability through published school performance. This topic will present the theoretical and empirical role of school choice and competition on school productivity and segregation.
AssessmentEach researcher will produce either a literature review of their chosen topic (which could be from their thesis) or a summary of one of the three topics covered in the course. Whichever written assignment is chosen, it should follow a logical structure. The aim of the assessment is for researchers to build their human capital, so the researcher should choose whichever method of assessment will best help them at their current stage of research. Each researcher will receive detailed formative feedback on their submitted work.
See syllabus
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Page last updated on 05 September 2023