ECON.bscsem - Bachelor's thesis seminar, Lecture, 16.9.2021-9.12.2021

Topic outline

• Final draft presentation
  In this section you can find lecture notes from and links to recordings of a mini-course on empirical methods, that replaces some of the TA sessions of this course.
  
  These eight 45 min. lectures provide a brief overview of the idea behind causal inference and the most common methods for isolating causality used in empirical microeconomics. The focus in on the intuition rather than equations and proofs. The course is taught by four professors from Aalto University Department of Economics, and will be used as a quick methods recap for several empirical elective courses at the MA level. 
  
  Lectures 1&2 discuss the basics of causal inference and the statistics needed to understand this concept and are taught by Matti Sarvimäki
  Lectures 3&4 focus on randomized field experiments and are taught by Miri Stryjan
  Lectures 5&6 go through Difference in Differences and are taught by Ciprian Domnisoru
  Lectures 7&8 introduce Instrumental Variables and Regression Discontinuity Designs and are taught by Kristiina Huttunen
  
  I will give instructions in class & lecture notes about which minicourse-lectures are related to what material we learn in class, and students can look at this material (lecture notes and recorded video lectures) in their own time. 
  
  
  

  • Select activity Presentation schedule

    

    Presentation schedule File PDF

    This documents lists the presenters for each date, and the assigned opponent and readers for each presentation. 

  • Select activity Thesis drafts and reader comments

    

    Thesis drafts and reader comments Forum

    Each students should upload her thesis draft by starting a "discussion thread" with the title of their thesis. Note that in order to upload your file you need to choose option "advanced" after you start the discussion topic. 

    This should be done at latest on the day before your presentation, Wednesday at 12.00. The assigned readers should then write their comments before the seminar session by replying to the thread

    As a reader, you should download the draft(s) for which you are a reader before the seminar, read it, and give some constructive comments to the author, a few lines of comments is enough. You should upload your comments before the seminar as a "Response" to the Discussion thread started by the author. 
    

    (opponents will receive the draft via email directly from the thesis author, and do not need to look for them here). 

    
    

    Let me know in case of any questions, and good luck with the preparation! 
    

    Miri

    
    

  • Select activity Opponent comments

    

    Opponent comments Assignment

    Opponents should upload their comments here after the seminar when they did the opposition, and latest on the day after the seminar, Friday at 18.00. 

    The opponent comment document should be approximately one page long, and the title of the document should be Opponentcomments_Name (where the name = the name of the opponent.) Inside the file, please clarify the author and the name of the thesis that you are writing the comments for. 

    The opponent should also send their comments separately to the author of the thesis they are commenting on. 

    
    

    
    

  • Select activity Presentation slides

    

    Presentation slides Assignment

    Presenters should upload their slides here after the seminar when they did the presentation, and latest on the day after the seminar, Friday at 18.00. 
    

  • Select activity Empirical Methods Lecture 1

    

    Empirical Methods Lecture 1 File PDF

    Introduction to causal inference - Matti Sarvimäki

  • Select activity Empirical methods Lecture 2

    

    Empirical methods Lecture 2 File PDF

    Statistical inference (point estimates, standard errors,, p-values, confidence intervals) Matti Sarvimäki

  • Select activity Empirical methods Lecture 3

    

    Empirical methods Lecture 3 File PDF

    Randomized field experiments (RCTs) intro and overview. Miri Stryjan 

  • Select activity Empirical Methods Lecture 4

    

    Empirical Methods Lecture 4 File PDF

    RCTs - risks and considerations (Balance checks, statistical power, level of randomization) Miri Stryjan 

  • Select activity Empirical Methods Lecture 5-6

    

    Empirical Methods Lecture 5-6 File PDF

    Difference in differences with Ciprian Domnisoru. 

  • Select activity Empirical methods Lecture 7

    

    Empirical methods Lecture 7 File PDF

    Instrumental Variables - Kristiina Huttunen

  • Select activity Empirical Methods Lecture 8

    

    Empirical Methods Lecture 8 File PDF

    Regression Discontinuity Design - Kristiina Huttunen

  • Select activity Lecture 1 Causality

    

    Lecture 1 Causality URL
  • Select activity Lecture 2 Statistical inference

    

    Lecture 2 Statistical inference URL
  • Select activity Lecture 3 Field experiments 1

    

    Lecture 3 Field experiments 1 URL
  • Select activity Lecture 4 Field experiments 2

    

    Lecture 4 Field experiments 2 URL
  • Select activity Lecture 5 Difference in differences 1

    

    Lecture 5 Difference in differences 1 URL
  • Select activity Lecture 6 Difference in differences 2

    

    Lecture 6 Difference in differences 2 URL
  • Select activity Lecture 7 IV

    

    Lecture 7 IV URL
  • Select activity Lecture 8 RDD

    

    Lecture 8 RDD URL
  • Select activity Videos by Josh Angrist on causal inference and "Mastering Econometrics"

    

    Videos by Josh Angrist on causal inference and "Mastering Econometrics" URL

    These are open source short instructional videos about the intuition behind different econometric methods and approaches.