Teaching
I find teaching my students greatly rewarding and this is one of the most important ways I can have an impact. Teaching also helps me sharpen my thinking about economic theory, econometric techniques, and public policy and thus improves my research — as Richard Feynman famously wrote, "the questions of the students are often the source of new research." I especially enjoy developing course materials around new topics and using new teaching technologies and tools.
I have been named to the UIUC "Ranked as Excellent by their Students" list five times and received the Excellence in Teaching a Field PhD Course award from the Economics Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) in 2022–23.
Below, I include descriptions of the 3 courses I most frequently teach, along with the most recent syllabi and selected student comments on these courses. If you're interested in one of my courses and have any questions, please schedule a meeting using this link or by emailing me at abartik@illinois.edu.
ECON 491: Decision-making
Undergraduate
This course will help students think about how data and economics can be used to inform decision-making in policy, business, and life. Economists combine data with assumptions to draw conclusions about the impact of different actions that governments, firms, or people can take. The strength and credibility of these conclusions depend on the data and assumptions used, as well as the type of analysis conducted. This course studies key methodological and conceptual challenges in decision-making and provides students with some basic tools to conduct their own analyses. Concepts and skills will be illustrated through real world examples.
This is an advanced elective for undergraduate students. I typically teach Decision-making once per year. The next time I teach it will be Fall 2027.
- I think Professor Bartik is one of the best lecturers that I've had at UIUC. All of the lectures were very engaging and instructive. Furthermore, he made the class interactive, which, at first, I was skeptical about, but it made the lectures even more engaging. Lastly, Professor Bartik also provided extra class sessions outside of class which were extremely helpful. I could not always attend them, but when I did go, they were useful.
- Professor Bartik is a very engaging lecturer. The course material is relevant to both economics and daily life. He also hosted many sessions outside of class for additional help on assignments. I also liked that he learned all of the students names.
- Professor Bartik is extremely knowledgeable and displays enthusiasm for what he teaches.
- Content was effectively communicated, class was interactive and thought-provoking, professor's enthusiasm was contagious, breadth in topics covered and real examples.
- Course material is coherent and makes sense despite being highly conceptual. Homework and exams are directly representative of lecture material.
- Lectures were engaging. Cold calls were good to get you thinking harder.
- Professor Bartik's course is very well formatted. All the content and concepts from start to finish are linked with one another (like a puzzle) and the professor does a great job in explaining these. The homework properly reflects the content covered in the lecture and helps also in preparation for the exams while pushing me to critically think. I enjoyed how coding in R was mandatory — this forced me to learn the program and understand how it is a useful tool in data analysis and predictive and causal analysis.
- The instructor goes in-depth into the topics that he teaches. He is passionate about his job and students.
- A major strength of this course is the emphasis on class participation. Alex let us know during the first lecture that this course would involve a lot of discussion and cold-calling. I enjoyed having a professor push me to share my thoughts and correct me on my responses. I quickly learned the value of attending lecture and participating in discussions, which incentivized me to consistently attend. Lecture was always engaging and stimulating, which fully prepared me for homework assignments and exams. Course also covers a lot of material and continuously builds off itself, which is advantageous.
- Concepts were explained very well in lecture through examples and having the class participate. Readings also helped give a background of concepts that were talked about in class which was helpful.
- I really enjoyed the assignments and going to lecture — I felt like I learned a lot during lecture and I liked that technology wasn't allowed in class — it felt like we were more focused on learning as students.
ECON 523: Applied Econometrics: Causal Inference and Policy Evaluation
Masters
This course will cover modern econometric techniques for estimating causal effects including experiments, regression and matching, instrumental variables, difference-in-differences, synthetic control, and regression-discontinuity designs. We will discuss the properties of each of these techniques and illustrate them using examples from health policy, education policy, workforce development programs, environmental and labor market regulations, and economic development programs. Students will be introduced to both the potential outcomes (PO) and directed acyclic graph (DAG) frameworks for thinking about causal questions. Students will also gain experience applying the techniques to study policies in real-data sets using the statistical programming language R. Emphasis will be placed on following good coding and data practices and using LLMs to improve productivity.
This is an elective for master's students. I typically teach Causal Inference once per year. The next time I teach it will be Fall 2026.
- Prof. Bartik is one of the best professors I've come across my entire academic journey. He breaks complex concepts down and is always open to questions for further explanations, he honestly made the course material super approachable. If he wasn't teaching this course, I would probably drop it in the first week. His teaching style, course materials and experience make a huge difference to our learning. An amazing professor and person! He is so passionate and such an interesting lecturer. He's so sweet and genuinely cares about students.
- Prof Bartik is perfect. The course design is perfect. This is perhaps the best course I've ever had in the program! The prof delivers hard materials using videos and lectures in class. The lectures in class are always engaging and very very clear. There are also a lot of assignments and class projects that allow us to apply what we have learned in the class. Everything in this course is effective and efficient!
- The professor has extensive knowledge of the course and the topics it includes. In addition, his knowledge of tools that can be applied is deep.
- This is the most informative course I've ever had. And if this opinion can be seen by other professors I really hope that they will enrich their lectures. Professor Bartik has great enthusiasm, he designs a lot of the material for this course and is willing to spend a lot of time to help us after class.
- The design of this class is great, because it is not pure passive learning but we are encouraged to conduct research with the support from the instructor, who tries to keep a regular meeting with us.
- The research project was really helpful to gain hands-on experience on doing causal inference.
- The homeworks were really well-structured to get us applying the concepts we were learning in class. I also enjoyed the final project where we were able to think through real-world (simulated) problems within the context of being a researcher.
ECON 590: Labor Economics I
PhD
This course provides graduate students an in-depth introduction into the theoretical frameworks and empirical tools labor economists use to understand labor markets. We cover labor demand and supply, frictions, search and matching, sorting and compensating differentials, skill formation, market power and bargaining, discrimination, and technological change. Students will derive canonical labor market models, analyze their equilibrium implications, and practice bringing them to the data. The course emphasizes the rich empirical toolkit that modern labor economists use, including quasi-experimental and experimental methods, quantitative structural models, and novel measurement approaches. Throughout the course, emphasis will be placed on understanding the theoretical and empirical connections between different topics and on analyzing policy questions. Students will produce research ideas and receive feedback on those ideas several times during the course to help them reach the research frontier.
This is a second-year PhD student course that qualifies for the Labor Economics field. I typically teach PhD Labor every other year. The next time I teach it will be Fall 2026.
- The course is very well organized and the professor explains in detail to make sure we understand.
- It was a great opportunity to be exposed to a lot of very interesting empirical works. I really liked how he teaches and gives unique insights on several topics. I learned a lot from him and I felt like he was really caring about the students.
- Really interesting topics, the problem sets are challenging and include good replications of famous papers and cover a good deal of important material.
- Excellent demonstration of the theories and empirical research papers.
- Professor Bartik explained the course material clearly and was always willing to answer questions. He encouraged us to interact in class, which I appreciated. I also liked the research idea assignments, since it was super helpful to get feedback on early-stage ideas.
- Great exposition of different models underlying current research in Labor Economics. Asking questions directly helps keep students engaged with the material throughout the lecture.