Johns Hopkins University 2 credits Graduate Business
Did a new compensation scheme motivate employees to work harder or stay with the organization longer? Do larger subsidies for health insurance lead to improved employee health and productivity? Did a new website format increase user activity on the site? Did a charitable organization’s program to train community leaders lead to positive changes in the community? Cause and effect questions like these are crucial to developing evidence-based practice in business, nonprofits and governments. Yet answering these questions is difficult when new ideas are not implemented with the explicit intent of measuring their impacts. In other words, developing evidence requires a scientific approach to business and policy.<br></br>This class aims to teach students to develop empirical evidence about the best ways to achieve their aims, whether these aims are to increase profits or to address social problems. The use of randomized controlled trials to test program impacts is becoming increasingly popular in businesses and government. An employee estimated that the average Facebook user is a participant in about 10 randomized controlled trials at any point in time. The U.S. government recently created a “Nudge Squad” that works with federal agencies to test new ideas through randomized controlled field trials. Experiments are an integral part of the ‘big data’ revolution going on in business, nonprofits and government. Importantly, they do not require advanced statistics or powerful computers to implement and interpret. <br></br>The course will blend lectures, group discussions, readings, homework, a group project, and guest speakers from private industry, nonprofits and government agencies. I am a firm believer that the most fundamental principles can be stated in plain English. Thus the course stresses intuition (in English) over math and mechanics. Nevertheless, there will be math and mechanics in the course. Prerequisite(s): BU.510.601 OR BU.914.610 OR BU.920.621 OR PH.140.611 OR PH.140.621 OR AS.440.605 OR AS.410.645
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