Economic Evaluation of Public Policies
Instructor
Kanemoto, Yoshitsugu
Schedule
Winter Semester; Mon. #5 and Fri. #3
Description
Most important in policy analysis is the evaluation of policy alternatives.
This course teaches students how to apply various policy evaluation methods
to real world policy making. The goal of the course is for the students
to be able to evaluate policy alternatives with solid understanding of
the theoretical foundation of cost-benefit and cost-effective analysis
and full recognition of their effectiveness and limits.
Topics covered are (1) the theoretical foundation of cost-benefit analysis,
(2) the social discount rate, (3) risk and uncertainty, (4) existence
value, (5) benefit evaluation by estimating demand curves, (6) revealed
preference methods such as hedonic and travel cost methods, (7) CVM, (8)
shadow prices from secondary sources, (9) evaluation by social experiments,
among others. These topics are combined with discussions of real-world
case studies. Students are required to write a case study report.
This coures requires good understanding of elementary economics and statistics
but does not pursue sophisticated economic analysis. The required levels
are Basic Economics and Statistical Method. Prerequisites are
(1) Microeconomics or Basic Economics
(2) Econometrics or Statistical Method
Course materials
Evaluation