2016

11/30/2016 - Christopher Rycroft - High-throughput screening of crystalline porous materials, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, November 30, 2016

High-throughput screening of crystalline porous materials

Chris Rycroft, Harvard University

Abstract: Crystalline porous materials, such as zeolites, contain complex networks of void channels that are exploited in many industrial applications, such as for carbon dioxide capture and storage. This talk will develop some geometry-based methods for statistically screening large databases of porous materials, to select candidates that are optimal for a given application.

...

11/16/2016 - David Parkes - Long-term causal effects via behavioral game theory, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Long-term causal effects via behavioral game theory

Random experiments are the gold standard in reliably comparing the causal effect of switching from a baseline policy to a new policy on socio-economic platforms. One critical shortcoming of classical methods, however, is that they do not take into account the dynamic nature of response to policy changes and may fail to capture long-term effects. We formalize a framework to define and estimate long-term causal effects of policy changes in multiagent economies, using behavioral game theory and a latent space...

11/9/2016 - Sharon-Lise Normand - Assessing quality and equity in health care, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, November 9, 2016

ASSESSING QUALITY AND EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE

Sharon-Lise Normand

Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School

Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The last two decades have been characterized by an increasing focus on healthcare provider performance measures, most often utilizing multiple binary response outcomes. In this problem, data arise from multiple clusters where (a) outcomes within clusters are more similar than outcomes between...

11/2/2016 - Daniele Paserman (BU) - "Gender Differences in Cooperative Environments? Evidence from the U.S. Congress" (joint with Stefano Gagliarducci), at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, November 2, 2016

The title of the presentation is:

"Gender Differences in Cooperative Environments? Evidence from the U.S. Congress" (joint with Stefano Gagliarducci)

Abstract: This paper uses data on bill sponsorship and cosponsorship in the U.S. House of Representatives to estimate gender differences in cooperative behavior. We employ a number of econometric methodologies to address the potential selection of female representatives into electoral districts with distinct preferences for cooperativeness, including regression discontinuity and matching. After...

10/26/2016 - In Song Kim (MIT) - When Should We Use Linear Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Longitudinal Data?, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Title: When Should We Use Linear Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Longitudinal Data?

===== Abstract =====

Many social scientists use linear fixed effects regression models

for causal inference with longitudinal data to account for

unobserved time-invariant confounders. We show that these models

require two additional causal assumptions, which are not necessary

under an alternative selection-on-observables approach.

Specifically, the models assume that...

10/19/2016 - Tyler VanderWeele - Religion and health: an assessment of causality, interaction, feedback, and mechanisms, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Religion and health: an assessment of causality, interaction, feedback, and mechanisms

Abstract. A large literature has suggested that religious service attendance is associated with better mental and physical health. Two major questions that have emerged from these studies are: (i) is the relationship causal? and (ii) if so, what are the mechanisms? We present analyses using data from the Nurses Health Study, with repeated measures of religious service attendance, health outcomes, and time-varying confounders, to address these questions with respect to...

10/12/2016 - Sole Prillaman - Strength in Numbers: How Women’s Networks Close India's Political Gender Gap., at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, October 12, 2016

The title is: Strength in Numbers: How Women’s Networks Close India's Political Gender Gap.

In India there persists a striking gender gap in political participation and representation, despite several decades of targeted policy interventions. Women's political participation is important not only on normative grounds of inclusion, but because we know that when women do participate, politics changes. I present a theoretical model of political behavior in rural India which argues that women's...

10/5/2016 - Tina Eliassi-Rad (Northeastern) - The Reasonable Effectiveness of Roles in Complex Networks, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Title: The Reasonable Effectiveness of Roles in Complex Networks

Abstract: Given a network, how can we automatically discover roles (or functions) of nodes? Roles compactly represent structural behaviors of nodes and generalize across various networks. Examples of roles include "clique-members," "periphery-nodes," "bridges," etc. Are there good features that we can extract for nodes that indicate role-membership? How are roles diffevent from communities and from equivalences (from sociology...

9/28/2016 - Stephen Pettigrew - "The Downstream Consequences of Long Waits: How Lines at the Precinct Depress Future Turnout", at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, September 28, 2016

"The Downstream Consequences of Long Waits: How Lines at the Precinct Depress Future Turnout"

Abstract:

Political scientists have increasingly emphasized the role played by an individual’s identity and life experiences in their patterns of political participation. In this paper, I explore how one particular type of experience–standing in line at a precinct to vote–shapes the turnout behavior of voters in future election. I demonstrate that for every additional hour a voter waits in line to vote, their...

9/21/2016 - Francesca Dominici - Model averaged double robust estimation, at CGIS Knafel K354, Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Title: Model averaged double robust estimation

Francesca Dominici, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health

Joint with: Matt Cefalu, Giovanni Parmigiani, Nils Arvold.

ABSTRACT. Researchers are increasingly being challenged with decisions on how to best control for a high-dimensional set of potential confounders when estimating causal eects. Typically, a single...

Applied Statistics Workshop Gov 3009

A tour of Harvard's statistical innovations and applications with weekly stops in different disciplines

2016

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