Causal inference and experimental design
Times and locations 2026
Meetings will be held at the WZB
| Date | Time | Location | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Jan 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB A 305 | 1 Getting started |
| 16 Jan 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB A 305 | 2 Doing experiments |
| 30 Jan 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB A 305 | 3 Causality and causal inquiries |
| 6 Feb 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB A 305 | 4 Answer strategies |
| 20 Feb 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB A 305 | 5 Data strategies and design evaluation |
| 27 Feb 2026 | 9 - 13 | WZB B 001 | 6 Topics: downstream experimentation, spillover experiments, patient preference trials, survey experiments |
The sessions will be structured roughly as follows.
- 9:00 - 11:00: lecture or discussions of readings
- 11:00 - 11:15: break
- 11:15 - 13:00: discussions, team presentations and in-class exercises
Office hours
Instructor: Fridays, 13:00 - 15:00, in person
Teaching assistant: Wednesdays, 13:00 - 14:00 on Zoom (excluding 25 Feb)
-
- 1.1 Intro
- 1.2 Design declaration
- 2.1 Causality
- 2.2 Estimands and Identification
- 3 Frequentists inference
- 4 Bayesian inference
- 5.1 Experimental design
- 5.2 Design evaluation
- 6. Topics 1 incl controls, doubly robust, Diff in Diff, matching
- 7. Topics 2: incl synth, IV, survey experiments, RDD, ethics
- 8. Topics 3: incl mediation, SUTVA, open science
This syllabus: https://macartan.github.io/ci/syllabus_ci_2025.pdf
2025 Times and places
| Date | Time | Location | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Jan 2025 | 10 - 12 | WZB B002/003 | Intro |
| 17 Jan 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Causality and causal inquiries |
| 24 Jan 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Frequentist answer strategies |
| 31 Jan 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Bayesian answer strategies |
| 14 Feb 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Design and evaluation |
| 21 Feb 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Topics 1 |
| 28 Feb 2025 | 9 - 1 | WZB B002/003 | Topics 2 |