This two-day masterclass run by the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre will provide course attendees with the quantitative and empirical tools necessary to evaluate the causal impact of policy interventions on economic and social outcomes.
The course will introduce attendees to the main quantitative evaluation approaches used in economic and social data analysis to estimate causal impacts. These include randomised experimental methods, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity design, matching methods and longitudinal evaluation techniques including the difference-in-differences approach.
The course is structured around a combination of accessible lecture-based instruction and practical computer exercises. Each exercise uses real world datasets to illustrate techniques, and support a better understanding of the applicability of quantitative evaluation approaches in different applied contexts, for example:
- How does tax or welfare reform impact on labour market participation
- Do changes in the Age Pension asset test threshold affect household savings behaviour?
- What is the causal impact of active labour market programs on employment?
- Do flexible workplace policies affect employee retention or workforce gender balance?
- Does financial literacy training reduce the incidence of cyber fraud among older Australians?
Instruction is delivered in a way that conveys an intuitive understanding of quantitative evaluation methods, as well as the empirical tools through which to implement those methods in practical economic or social policy contexts. In doing so, the course is intended to support data-driven business decisions and evidence-based policy making.
About the facilitators
Professor Alan Duncan
Professor Alan Duncan is Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, and was previously Director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling and Head of the University of Nottingham’s School of Economics.
Professor Duncan’s research is motivated by a passion to influence public debates on economic and social issues. He has an established international reputation for academic scholarship in the development of econometric and policy evaluation methods, and their application to economic, social, health and public policy issues. He ranks among the top 5 per cent of economists worldwide, and was awarded the prestigious Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society in 2000 for the best applied economics article to be published in the world-leading journal Econometrica.
One of the most significant of Professor Duncan’s achievements has been the development of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre. The highly influential industry partnership with Bankwest has been an outstanding success. The partnership has delivered exceptional value, and is held in high regard by external stakeholders from politics, government, industry and the community sectors. A further agreement this year will extend Bankwest’s support for the Centre to 13 years of continuous funding – a testament to the unrivalled reputation the Centre has established as the State’s premier economic and social policy think tank.
Dr Silvia Salazar
Silvia Salazar is an applied micro-econometric researcher specialised in development economics, gender and ethnic inequality as well as public policy. She obtained her PhD at the Paris School of Economics and she has previously held academic and teaching positions at the University of Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, the University of Paris 13 and the Dom Bosco Catholic University. She has presented her research at numerous international conferences and workshops.
Her research focuses on the analysis of household well-being and consumption levels. She analyses the factors affecting household welfare such as monetary expenditures and time consumption in leisure activities and domestic production. A large part of this research concentrates on how public policies affect income allocation and time distribution.
Silvia also has research experience in income inequalities, gender and Indigenous discrimination in the labour market. The specificity of her work lies in incorporation of the time dimension as well as in the utilisation of original and innovative econometric techniques in the study of well-being and public policies.
