CESR Events

Monday, December 2, 2024

12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: We examine nationwide causal effects of school choice on student’s outcomes and trajectories by exploiting the randomness of the allocation Deferred Acceptance Algorithm of the centralized school allocation system to fill the vacancies in each Bicentennial school that is over subscripted and using rich administrative and longitudinal data. This generates two groups (treatment and control) which are equal except by the School Admission System (SAS) result. This allow us to come close to an idealized social random experiment. The Deferred Acceptance Algorithm generates a student-school allocation considering student preferences and school capacities that assigns each student to the highest plausible preference conditional on special priorities and vacancies at schools. Prelaminar results find both positive and negative significant impacts depending on the academic outcome evaluated when estimating the impact of being selected at a first-choice Bicentennial school, with differing results depending on whether the education is Regular or Vocational. Meanwhile, the impact of enrolling in those first-choice assigned Bicentennial schools shows in average non-significant academic results.

Bio: Pamela Jervis is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Chile. Her primary fields are household behaviour, human capital accumulation and policy evaluation. Her research focuses on designing, implementing and evaluating mainly large-scale randomized field studies to test policies, programs and interventions focused on parental and/or teachers’ behavior change to improve lack of stimulation and children’s outcomes, and to reduce socioeconomic gaps primarily in low-and middle-income countries.

Monday, December 9, 2024

12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: It has long been established that if a panel dataset suffers from attrition, auxiliary (refreshment) sampling may restore full identification under semiparametric assumptions on the attrition process that are significantly weaker than selection on observables. Despite their generality, these identification strategies have not gained wide applicability in empirical research due to the complexity of induced estimation and inference procedures. We show that this is nevertheless possible and suggest a computationally attractive two-step estimator employing the iterative proportional fitting (raking) algorithm. We derive the influence function of this estimator and show that it depends on a nonparametric additive regression, which can be computed efficiently using the well-studied smooth backfitting algorithm. This further leads to a Neyman-orthogonal (debiased) estimator and a procedure for asymptotic inference. Finally, we demonstrate the satisfactory performance of our methodology in simulations and provide an empirical illustration using the Understanding America Study panel.

Bio: Grigory is a CESR economist with research interests in econometric theory and survey methodology.

Monday, December 16, 2024

12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Abstract: Research investigating the impact of highlighting versus minimizing gender differences has shown that it can affect women’s agency, potentially increasing gender disparities. Specifically, when women read a difference-awareness message that emphasizes gender differences, they show reduced agency (i.e., assertiveness, confidence, and advocacy) compared to when they read a difference-minimization message that downplays gender differences. Our work challenges the idea that highlighting gender differences is inherently harmful. We propose that a difference-education message that acknowledges these differences while providing a contextual theory of their origin (i.e., differences come from participating in and adapting to diverse sociocultural contexts) will not produce the same detrimental effects. Across three empirical studies, we test the impact of difference-education compared to difference-awareness. We predict and find that, relative to difference-awareness, messages of difference-education increase women’s agency in general and their likelihood of confronting gender biases and advocating for equality in the workplace. Additionally, we demonstrate that, compared with difference-awareness, difference-education leads women to anticipate greater levels of fit and empowerment in the workplace. We also find that difference-education and difference-minimization messages show similar effects across our outcomes. This work suggests that it is not necessary to downplay gender differences, which may be a challenging task. Rather, a contextual understanding of gender differences can serve as an effective strategy in addressing gender disparities in professional settings.

Bio: Sarah S. M. Townsend is an Associate Professor of Management and Organization and Vice Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Marshall School of Business at USC. Her research focuses on when individuals’ cultural norms collide with the dominant cultural norms of organizations. She examines how these “cultural divides” are often a hidden source of inequality, but how they can be used to lessen opportunity gaps and fuel greater cross-group understanding.

The CESR Seminar & Brown Bag Series will resume Monday, January 27, 2025 and conclude Monday, May 5, 2025.

Mondays
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, January 27
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, February 3
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, February 1o
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, February 24
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, March 3
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, March 10
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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*Cohosted with Behavioral Science & Policy and Social Psychology

Monday, March 24
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, March 31
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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*Cohosted with Behavioral Science & Policy and Social Psychology

Monday, April 7
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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*Cohosted with Behavioral Science & Policy and Social Psychology

Monday, April 14
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, April 21
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Wednesday, April 23
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, April 28
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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Monday, May 5
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom
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*Cohosted with Economics

Dates: January 10-12, 2025 (Fri-Sun)

Venue: University of Southern California – SGM 124 and MCB

Duration: 3 days (6 half-day sessions, 9-12, 1-5)

Format: Invited talks, panel discussions, and social gathering

Registration: Register here.

Join the mailing list to get more information.

Organizing committee: Anna Krylov (USC), Arie Kapteyn (USC, CESR), Margaret Crable (USC Dornsife, Communication), Michele Warnock (USC, CESR), Lee Jussim (Rutgers), Ivan Marinovic (Stanford)

Advisory board: Alexander Arnold (Heterodox Academy), Cory Clark (UPenn), Barry Honig (Columbia, AASL), Luana Maroja (Williams), Sean Stevens (FIRE), Abigail Thompson (UC Davis, AFA), Keith Whittington (Yale, AFA)

We’re excited to announce that CIPHER 2025 will be held at USC’s Capital Campus in Washington, D.C. on February 26 – 28.

In its seventh year, the Current Innovations in Probability-based Household Internet Panel Research (CIPHER) Conference continues to be the leading event for discussion, exchange, and learning about probability panels. The event again will bring together researchers and policymakers from the United States and beyond for a wide-ranging conversation about innovations, challenges, and opportunities in this field.

Conference Registration and Fees

CIPHER is free to attend in-person or virtually, but registration is required. To register for CIPHER and/or the UAS Data Use Workshop, please complete this form.

Location and Format

The joint conference will take place February 26 – 28 at USC’s Capital Campus in Washington D.C.The preliminary program is as follows:

• February 26: UAS Data Use Workshop
• February 27: CIPHER and Reception
• February 28: CIPHER

Dates: March 8, 2025 (Saturday)

Venue: University of Southern California – Taper Hall (MPH)

UCLA and USC will host the 2025 Pacific Conference for Development Economics (PacDev)—the largest West Coast conference on Development Economics, and one of the leading Development Economics events in the United States. The conference brings together over 200 researchers from all over the world to present and discuss work that enhances our understanding of economic development, advances theoretical and empirical methods, and improves development interventions and policy.