Instructor: Prof Andrea Matranga, University of Torino

Venue: Department of Economics, University of Genova

Room: PhD students' lab

Dates: 3-4 February 2026

Course purpose

Modern empirical work often lives or dies on (i) how treatments/exposures are defined in space, and (ii) whether identifying assumptions are plausible given spatial confounding, spillovers/interference, and measurement error. This course walks through major applied identification strategies in economics—OLS/controls, DiD/event studies, IV, geographic RD, network/market-access designs, hazards/pollution exposure, and shift-share—and for each asks: what must be true to be valid, how it is commonly invalidated, and how GIS can enable better measurement, assignment, diagnostics, and falsification.