Harvard Catalyst Biostatistics Short Course:A Practical Course in Difference-in-Differences MethodsFebruary 13, 2023 | 9:00am-1:00pm | Register hereLaura Hatfield, PhDAssociate Professor of Health Care Policy (Biostatistics)Department of Health Care PolicyHarvard Medical SchoolThis course will give an in-depth treatment of the fundamentals of causal inference using difference-in-differences methods. This includes formulating target estimands using a potential outcomes framework, applying causal assumptions to identify that estimand, and using basic estimation methods such as regression to estimate the target. We will also cover tests for parallel trends in the pre-intervention period, how to use observed covariates to ameliorate confounding, basic sensitivity analyses, and statistical inference. We will also review alternative identification assumptions, the relationship of difference-in-differences to other methods (like synthetic controls and comparative interrupted time series), and extensions of difference-in-differences to new outcome types. Throughout, we will use real examples from the applied clinical and health policy literatures to illustrate the concepts discussed.
