This course introduced participants to the various empirical methods that can be used to estimate the impact of a specific policy intervention. The intention was not to teach participants how to estimate the impact of a specific policy intervention or programme, but to give an understanding of the suitability of the various methods given the nature of the policy under consideration and the available data.
It was primarily designed for those who design policy experiments or demonstration projects, those who commission or manage projects which undertake evaluations (or impact assessments), or make decisions on the basis of the estimated impact of policies.
About the course leader
Mike Brewer is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Professor of Economics at the University of Essex. He is the former Director of an ESRC-funded National Centre for Research Methods Node called “Programme Evaluation for Policy Analysis” based at IFS and cemmap, and is now Director of the Research Centre on Micro-Social
Change based at the University of Essex.