[x2022 Spring] POLS GA 1251 Quant II

Announcements

• Office hours sign-ups: [link]
• Zoom link for lectures: [link]
• Midterm is planned for Wed 9-Mar-2022.
• No class on the following dates:
  • Mon, 21-Feb-2022
  • Mon, 14-Mar-2022, and Wed, 16-Mar-2022
  • Wed, 6-Apr-2022
  • Wed, 13-Apr-2022
• Final will be a take-home that you can do over a 24-hour period of your choosing during the exam period.

Resources

• syllabus (nb: readings/references may be updated occasionally over the course of the semester)
• readings
• Giacomo’s 2022 recitation slides
• Aaron’s 2021 recitation slides
• Ye’s 2020 recitation slides
• Saad’s 2017 recitation slides
• Jim’s 2016 recitation slides
• Drew’s 2015 recitation slides
• coding resources: [RMarkdown] [Stata Markdown]

Sessions

Jan 24

• 1 causal identification
  • [test your “causation” intuitions]

Jan 26

• 2 estimation and inference for a randomized experiment
  • [covariate adjustment simulation]
  • [great blog post pt 1] [pt 2]

Jan 31

• 3 agnostic regression

Feb 2

• 4 regression and causal effects

Feb 7

• 5 conditioning to identify causal effects

Feb 9

• 6 conditioning via matching and weighting

Feb 14

• 7 robust inference I
  • [useful blog posts: I II III IV V VI VII]
  • [degrees of freedom adjustments for clustering & panel data]

Feb 16

• 8 robust inference II
  • [bootstrap demos]
  • [bootstrap lecture notes from Wasserman]
  • [bootstrap blog post from Wasserman] [part 2]
  • [notes on how to use and implement bootstrap]

Feb 20-Mar 9

The following slides complement the instrumental variables lectures organized in my absence:

• 9 instrumental variables 1
• 10 instrumental variables 2

Mar 21

• 11 front door criterion

Mar 23

• 12 repeated observations I
• Video on triple differences: [link]
• Xu’s short course on current methods for causal inference with panel data (including FE, DID, synthetic control, IPW, etc.): [link]
• DID Reading Group lectures: [link]
• Very nice DID resource page: [link]

Mar 28

• 13 repeated observations II

The following slides complement the regression discontinuity lectures organized in my absence:

• 14 regression discontinuity 1
• 15 regression discontinuity 2

Mar 30

• 16 moderators, mediators, and causal explanation I

Apr 4

• 17 moderators, mediators, and causal explanation II

Apr 11

• 18 distributional effects

Apr 18

• 19 multiple endpoints

Apr 20

• 20 missing data

Apr 25

• 21 interference

Apr 27

• 22 limited dependent variables

May 2

• 23 machine learning and causal effects

May 4

• 24 generalization and external validity

May 9

• 25 generalization and theory

Homework

(Homework due via email to Cyrus and Giacomo by 5pm ET on the dates posted below.)

homework 1 (due Fri, 4-Feb-2022):

• [assignment]
• [data]
• [CLT notes with example simulation in R]

homework 2 (due Fri, 18-Feb-2022):

• [assignment]

homework 3 (due Fri, 4-Mar-2022):

• [assignment]
• [replication materials]

homework 4 (due Fri, 1-Apr-2022):

• [assignment]
• [replication materials]

homework 5 (due Fri, 15-Apr-2022):

• [assignment]
• [paper]
• [replication materials]

homework 6 (due Fri, 29-Apr-2022):

• [assignment]
• rep materials