Guía docente de Evaluación de Programas y Políticas Públicas (MA9/56/6/50)

• Economic and social impact of public policies and programmes from efficiency and an equity viewpoint
• Inequality measures
• Impact evaluation techniques (difference in difference, synthetic control method, etc)
• Cost-benefit analysis, econometric modelling and inequality measures.
• Empirical and theoretical applications in the health care field mostly. The analytic techniques are extendable to measuring other dimensions of social welfare such as environment and education.

Background in Economics, Statistics and Econometrics is useful

• Understand the importance and foundations of impact assessment
• Identify the methodologies for evaluating the impact of health and social policies
• Identify the methodologies for modeling impact over a suitable time horizon
• Writing critical analysis essays in the area of impact assessment
• Interpreting research papers in the area of impact assessment
• Argue, discuss and defend, either orally or in writing, the conclusions and proposals presented

1.Evaluation of social and economic impact of health care policies

• Social determinants of health
• Factors explaining inequalities in health: the socioeconomic position
  • Measuring socioeconomic inequalities in health
  •  Economic position and health: some explanatory mechanisms

2.Evaluation of public policies

• Why evaluate?
• Methods of evaluation:
  • Differences in differences, Synthetic Control Methods
  • Regression Discontinuity
• Examples of public policy evaluation

3.Cost-benefit analysis

• Measuring value: Hedonistic methods, conjoint analysis and willingness to pay
• Methodologies for measuring social, economic and environmental impact and risk

4.Demographic change and pension system reform

Students will be required to participate in at least one practical workshop consisting in a guided training session in Stata. Students will also be required to attend several seminars in impact evaluation techniques led by experts in the field.

• ANGRIST, J. D., & PISCHKE, J. S. (2016). Mostly harmless econometrics: An empiricist's companion. Princeton university press.
• MCGUIRE, P. PITA BARROS P. (2013) Handbook of Health Economics Vol. 2. North Holland
• O'DONNELL, O. A., & WAGSTAFF, A. (2008). Analyzing health equity using household survey data: a guide to techniques and their implementation. World Bank Publications.
• GREVE, B. (2017) Handbook of Social Policy Evaluation. Elgar
• GRUBER, J. (2017) Public Finance and Public Policy (Chapter 8). Worth Publishing
• CUNNINGHAM, S. (2021). Causal inference: The mixtape. Yale university press.

• WORLD BANK  https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/sief-trust-fund/publication/impact-evaluation-in-practice  
• Lecturers will provide specific references for each topic

• The Economist http://www.economist.com/
• World Bank Health’s systems website http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health
• World Health Organization website http://www.who.int/en/
• OECD website http://stats.oecd.org/

The ordinary assessment session (convocatoria ordinaria) will preferably be based on the continuous assessment of students, except for those who have been granted the right to a single final assessment (evaluación única final), which is an assessment method that only takes a final exam into account.

Continuous assessment:

• 15 x class and seminar attendances (15%)
• Short written summaries of each class (100-200 words) to hand in on PRADO 1 week after every class (15%)
• 1 x written term papers, to hand in on PRADO according to the schedule published on PRADO, 750-1250 words (35%)
• 1 x STATA practical analysis of micro-data, led by Dolores Jiménez Rubio, to hand in on PRADO according to the schedule published on PRADO (20%)
• 1 x presentation of 1 of the coursework term papers, to be conducted according to the schedule published on PRADO (15%)

Students who have not passed a course in the ordinary assessment session (convocatoria ordinaria) will have access to an extraordinary assessment session (convocatoria extraordinaria). All students may take part in this extraordinary assessment session, regardless of whether or not they have followed continuous assessment activities. In this way, students who have not carried out continuous assessment activities will have the opportunity to obtain 100% of their mark by means of coursework provided by the lecturers.

Students who are unable to follow continuous assessment methods due to justifiable reasons shall have recourse to a single final assessment (evaluación única final), which is an assessment method that only takes a final exam into account.

In order to opt for a single final assessment (evaluación única final), students must send a request, using the corresponding online procedure, to the coordinator of the master’s programme, in the first two weeks of the course or in the two weeks following their enrolment (if the enrolment has taken place after the classes have already begun). The coordinator will communicate this information to the relevant teaching staff members, citing and verifying the reasons why the student is unable to follow the continuous assessment system. 

In this case, the assessment will comprise coursework provided by the lecturers.