ISEG Summer School 2023

Keynote Speaker: Seda Ertac
Date: 10 – 13 July 2023
Room: 102 and 103 (Francesinhas 2)

Course Description:
This course aims to introduce students to experimental economics and teach them how to use experimental methods (laboratory and field experiments) to solve research questions. We will start with the methodology of designing experiments and then study a select series of topics where experiments help us understand behaviour better. The course syllabus also embraces interdisciplinary elements (e.g., from psychology, neuroscience).

Tentative List of Topics:
1. Introduction to Experiments
-What are experiments? How can experiments help us understand economic behaviour?
-The history of experimentation in economics

2. Methodology
-What is a good experimental design?
-Establishing causality
-Laboratory and field experiments

3. Understanding Preferences through Experiments
-Other-Regarding (Non-selfish) Preferences: Altruism, Fairness, Trust, Reciprocity
-Risk and Time Preferences

4. Game-Theoretic Experiments (e.g. coordination games, cooperation)

5. Gender Differences in Economic Decision-Making: An Experimental Perspective

6. Field Experiments in Education and Development

Keynote Speaker: Jan Stuhler
Date: 17 – 20 July 2023
Room: Novo Banco (Quelhas 6)

Course Description:
This course reviews the recent contributions in labour economics on (i) inequality and intergenerational mobility and (ii) the effects of immigration and local adjustments to economic shocks on the labour market. We first cover the literature on intergenerational mobility, with a particular focus on novel research designs which exploit large-scale administrative data, recent evidence on multigenerational mobility, and the role of firms in intergenerational processes. We then study local adjustments to economic shocks. While our focus is on the labour market effects of immigration, we also cover related work on labour demand and other economic shocks. We also discuss the implementation and challenges of the “shift share” instrumental variable approach. Theoretically, we compare classic factor proportions and more recent monopsonistic models of the labour market, whereas empirically, we study the different margins of adjustment via which local labour markets may adjust.

Programme:
-Intergenerational Mobility
-Multigenerational and Extended-kin Evidence
-The Role of Firms in Intergenerational Persistence
-Area Studies and Shift-share Instrumental Variables
-The Labour Market Effects of Immigration
-Labour Demand Shocks

References:
The course is structured around empirical papers, in particular the papers listed below. Useful background reading are Cahuc, Carcillo and Zylberberg (2014, or previous edition) or Borjas’ “Labor Economics”.

Topics
The course is divided into six modules (+1 optional module).

References for each module HERE.

Keynote Speaker : Wojciech Kopczuk
Date : 24 – 26 July 2023
Room : Novo Banco (Quelhas 6)

Course Description:
The objective of the course is to introduce students to the state-of-the-art research on the economics of taxation.

The course will be a mix of theory and empirical applications and will also include a short refresher of the standard empirical approaches used in applied microeconomics (IV, diff-in-diff, regression discontinuity and kink designs, kinks, and notches).

The course is planned for 24-26 July, 2023, in Lisbon, Portugal, with a total of 12 hours lecture time, which this is approximately equivalent to half-a-semester of a PhD class that I teach at Columbia. It assumes graduate level preparation in microeconomics and econometrics and is intended for PhD students.

Depending on time constraints/the number of students/interest, there will also be an option of one-on-one meetings with those students who are interested to talk about their research ideas that are related to public economics.

Outline of the sessions:
Monday: The efficiency cost of taxation (excess burden, Marginal Cost of Funds); classical optimal taxation (basic structure, solution methods, and results; commodity and income taxation, externalities); capital and dynamic taxation

Tuesday: Introduction to empirical approaches, behavioural responses to taxation (labour supply and taxable income, income shifting, other margins), tax evasion, avoidance and administration.

Wednesday: Capital income, wealth and inheritance taxation; business and corporate taxation; Value Added Tax.

Keynote Speaker : Mónica Costa Dias
Date : 24 – 27 July 2023
Room : Novo Banco (Quelhas 6)

Course Description:
This course examines the problem of quantifying the causal effects of an intervention or `treatment’ when exposure to treatment is not randomly allocated. We will focus on the empirical methods currently used in the applied micro-econometrics research literature for causal analysis. We will also discuss and critique the evaluation problem and the most prominent empirical approaches to it, focusing on the underlying assumptions, identification strategies, parameters identified under different conditions, and relative merits and weaknesses of the evaluation of policy interventions. The various methods will be interrelated within a common framework.  

Programme:
-Causality in economics and the evaluation problem
-Parameters of Interest 
-Randomised Experiments
-Event Studies and Difference in Differences 
-Matching 
-Instrumental Variables 
-Heterogeneous Treatment Effects, LATE, and Marginal Treatment Effects