Armenian Independent University - Summer School - June 28 to July 9, 2021
Syllabus: Economic Policy Analysis in Armenia
Course Description: This course investigates the role of government in the economy and aims at equipping students with tools sufficient to address a wide range of economic policy issues. The emphasis is on microeconomic analysis of real-life policies in Armenia. We study the instruments by which governments intervene in the marketplace policies, and apply our tools to analyze policy problems in social security, demographics, education and health, among others. Students can additionally expect to learn some of the main methods of modern microeconometrics.
Requirements:
Intermediate Micro and Macro Economics
Applied Statistics and Basic Econometrics
Basic Algebra
Schedule: Meet daily at 2:00 - 3:45pm Yerevan time; zoom link: tba
Recommended reading:
Joshua D. Angrist and Jörn-Steffen Pischke “Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion” Lecture notes
Wooldridge, J. M. (2015). Introductory econometrics: A modern approach. Cengage learning.
Course Plan
June 28: Zareh Asatryan, ZEW Mannheim
Introduction to economic policy analysis; Course syllabus
June 28 - June 29: Davit Adunts, Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI
Economics of Education; teacher value added models, educational production functions, skill formation with an emphasize on policy issues in Armenian education system
Concepts: Social Welfare Functions and Equity-Efficiency Tradeoff, Cost-benefit Analysis
June 30 - July 1: Armenak Antinyan, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
Using Behavioral Insights to improve Public Policy in Armenia; Health, Environment, Nudges
Methods: Randomized control trials as the gold standard
July 1 - 2: Geghetsik Afunts, CERGE-EI, Charles University, The Czech Academy of Sciences
The Path from Cause to Effect in Education Research
Methods: Impact Evaluation, Instrumental Variables, Differences-in-Differences
July 5-6: Ella Sargsyan, CERGE-EI
Demographics, with application on the role of conflict on fertility choices
Methods: Spatial econometrics
July 7-8: Yeva Aleksanyan, Colorado State University
Universal and targeted approaches to education, healthcare and poverty alleviation
Methods: microsimulation models using Armenian Household Surveys
July 9: Vahagn Jerbashian, Universitat de Barcelona, BEAT, and CESifo (Macroeconomic and Finance)