Program Overview

Diploma in Public Policy Evaluation

The Diploma in Public Policy Evaluation is designed for professionals interested in the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies, both in the public and private sectors. Applicants must have a basic understanding of economics and statistics.

Objective of the Diploma

The objective of the Diploma in Public Policy Evaluation is to provide students with a solid foundation to develop rigorous evaluations of public projects and programs. Graduates of this program will have the analytical and empirical tools necessary to structure the essential aspects required for designing and implementing economic evaluations of public investment projects, as well as evaluating the design and results (impact) of programs with diverse characteristics in the field of public policy.

Academic Director

The Academic Director of the program is Heidi Berner, who holds a degree in Commercial Engineering with a mention in Economics from the University of Chile, a Bachelor's degree in Economic Sciences from the University of Chile, and a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA. She has served as Subsecretary of Social Evaluation at the Ministry of Social Development and has developed consultancies for international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Program Structure

The program consists of two modules:

• Evaluaci de Pol咜icas P炻licas I (June to October)
  1. Context (definitions and applications)
  2. Private project evaluation
  3. Social project evaluation I - introduction
  4. Social project evaluation II - project formulation
  5. Social evaluation
• Evaluaci de Pol咜icas P炻licas II (October to January)
  • Mulo 1: Aspectos Institucionales de la Evaluaci en Chile
    1. Ex-ante evaluation of programs in Chile
    2. Ex-post evaluation of programs in Chile
  • Mulo 2: Metodolog僘s de Evaluaci de Impacto
    1. The problem of impact evaluation: causality
    2. Controlled social experiments: experimental design, randomness, and power calculations
    3. Natural or quasi-experiments: differences in differences
    4. Non-experimental studies: matching
    5. Non-experimental studies: instrumental variables
    6. Non-experimental studies: regression discontinuity
    7. Non-experimental studies: control functions
    8. Non-experimental studies: structural models
    9. Design and implementation of an impact evaluation

Institutions

The program is affiliated with the University of Chile, FEN DECON, and Microdatos.