Getting to Causality Universidad de Chile / MIT

Analytics Program

Getting to Causality:
Applications to Healthcare & Public Economics
IAP 2022

Course Syllabus

Faculty:

Professor Joseph Doyle

E62-518
jjdoyle@mit.edu

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Getting to Causality Universidad de Chile / MIT
Analytics Program

Course Goals

This course considers how to use data to "get to causality": if I make an investment, will
outcomes improve as a result? These can be business decisions (e.g. advertising) and policy
choices (e.g. child welfare interventions).

One approach is a randomized controlled trials and the course will introduce a related idea:
natural experiments. We will discuss this using the tools of regression modeling and modern
machine-learning tools. Applications to healthcare and other public economics topics will
motivate the discussion.

We will build your MIT courses that you will have seen prior to the lectures. Our aim is to
improve your skills in data analytics, including being a savvy consumer of claims made with
such tools.

Readings

For those interested in a textbook, we are partial to Angrist & Pischke’s Mastering ‘Metrics,
Wooldridge’s Introductory Econometrics, and Greene’s Econometric Analysis. For this course we
would like you to prepare by reading:

Mostly Harmless Econometrics Chapters 1-2

Anderson and Simester HBR Guide to Business Experiments
Craig et al., Natural Experiments
*Optional: Stevens Regression Discontinuity Designs: An Introduction

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Getting to Causality Universidad de Chile / MIT
Analytics Program

Topic Outline

We will introduce a range of related topics, starting with regression modeling, covering
predicted values, residuals, bias and endogeneity. This will provide a deeper understanding of
what a multivariate regression is doing. We will solidify that understanding with applications:
randomized controlled trials and an introduction to natural experiments, largely in the context
of healthcare: if we spend more on healthcare treatments, are lives saved? We will also
consider applications in public economics such as interventions that affect investments in
children and their long-term outcomes.

Session 1: Multivariate Regression

Session 2: Experiments

Session 3: Natural Experiments I: Natural randomization & Regression Discontinuity

Session 4: Natural Experiments II: Natural randomization & Difference in Differences