Policy Lab

Course goals

Learning objectives
At the end of the course, the student is able to:

• Evaluate public policies in terms of the main issues and problems addressed;
• Identify the main policy-advising institutions;
• Acquire an overall perspective of the role of economic theory and insights of other disciplines in a number of topical policy issues;
• Translate existing theoretical knowledge in a consistent and coherent way to a specific practical policy issue.

Content

In this course topical issues in the social-economic policy domain are addressed. Situated at the end of the academic year, this course gives students the opportunity to apply core tools and concepts learnt from the Economic Policy curriculum to practical real-world policy issues, varying from the effectiveness of activation policies to reduce welfare dependency, social security, the pension system and labour market reform proposals to cost-benefit analyses of public investments in health, education or public transport. We discuss the role of evidence-based policy, to what extent implemented policies are based on research and how this can be improved.

Format
Lectures (guest lectures and discussion groups) 

Assessment method
Teams of students choose a topical public policy issue. Using their technical skills and knowledge from the master curriculum, they perform a policy analysis: ‘how, why and to what effect governments pursue particular courses of action’ culminating in a final report and presentation of a public policy topic that will be graded (100% of the final grade)

In case online access is required for this course and you are not in the position to buy the access code, you are advised to contact the course coordinator for an alternative solution. Please note that access codes are not re-usable meaning that codes from second hand books do not work, as well as access codes from books with a different ISBN . Separate or spare codes are usually not available.