This module equips students with the theoretical and analytic tools necessary to engage in social policy analysis and to provide an experience of applying them to real-world-like problems. This module will develop understanding of the rationale for, and approaches to, evidenced-based policy evaluation using examples from a wide range of policy areas. It equips students with knowledge necessary to make links between policy questions and evaluation methods and designs, and to introduce students to the main approaches to the design of policy evaluations and their accompanying logics. It will provide students with a background for systematically and critically reviewing published work on policy evaluation.
This module comprises lectures accompanied by case-studies, as well as practical sessions in which students working in groups present and defend policy analyses of their own. Topics may include: the theory and rationale for policy evaluation; the management of policy evaluation; Difference in differences designs; Matching and propensity score matching; Interrupted time- series analysis; Regression discontinuity designs; Process evaluation; Pluralistic and theory of change evaluation; Cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis for policy.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Connect theories about social policies, interventions and problems to research methods used to explore aspects of social change
Apply appropriate research methods to answer clearly focused questions about social interventions and policies
Identify and critically appraise social research for quality, relevance and appropriateness
Interpret and critically discuss social research, as applied to social policies and interventions
Assessment
34492-01 : Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions
4000 word essay for both main and reassessment (100%)
