Applied Quantitative Methods for Management Research - 2026

Module A: Understanding Causality

Course coordinator: Oana Vuculescu

Lecturers: Bart Verwaeren; Harry Garretsen, Steffen Triebel, Sarah Bruhs Sørensen

Workload: 5 ECTS

Administrative assistance: Lisbeth Widahl

Time and place: 

Week 41, Monday – Friday, 5-9 October 2026, all days 9-16

Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen, 8000 Aarhus C. Room: 5 Oct.: 1834-142, 6 Oct.: 1812-117, 7 Oct.: 1812-145, 8-9 Oct.: 1834-238.

Application deadline: 2 September 2026

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How can you design a study that allows you to make credible causal claims, when randomized experiments are not feasible? How can you address concerns about endogeneity or flawed research design raised by reviewers and colleagues? This PhD course equips students with the tools and strategies to tackle these questions, focusing on the challenges of causal inference in management research. Grounded in counterfactual thinking, the course introduces a range of tools designed to uncover causal relationships, focusing on observational and quasi-experimental methods.

Course objectives:

• Understand key concepts of causality, threats to causal inference and strategies to address them in management research.
• Learn the main techniques used in management research to handle endogeneity and identify causal effects, including regression-based adjustment, panel-data and fixed-effects models, matching, difference-in-differences, and instrumental variables, with a closing look at machine-learning approaches at the frontier.
• Learn how to apply some of these techniques using data from published articles.
• Critically review scientific papers to assess the validity of causal claims and strengths and weaknesses of the chosen methods.

The course progresses from the core principles of causality (day 1) through the workhorse tools for addressing specific challenges in causal inference (days 2–4), and closes with instrumental variables and a look ahead to the research frontier (day 5). Throughout the course, an emphasis is placed on understanding the intuition behind these techniques, seeing them applied in published empirical articles, and replicating them using software packages.

The course is designed to help students critically assess causal claims, identify appropriate techniques given the available data, and contribute effectively to academic discourse in management research.

Assignment
Pre-course: there will be pre-readings to prepare for the course. Moreover, participants are expected to submit a short project description (max 1 page) with a focus on the method section.

Post-course: The focus of the final assignment (4-5 pages) will be on applying the course concepts and methods to the student’s own research project and critically evaluating the credibility of its causal claims, including the identification assumptions involved and how sensitive the conclusions are to them.

Application
Deadline for application: 2 September 2026. Please download and fill in the application form. The application form should be sent by email to: Department of Management, Aarhus BSS, Aarhus University, att. Lisbeth Widahl. Please note that your application is binding.

Fee
External participants (from outside Aarhus University) will have to pay a fee to cover lunch and refreshments. For more information, please contact Lisbeth Widahl. Participants will have to make their own arrangements regarding travel and accommodation.