CESR Events Archive

Monday, March 9
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom

Abstract: Institutionalized racism stemming from the historical practice of slavery supports persistent racial inequalities in health, advantaging Whites and disadvantaging Black Americans.  We advance the literature by empirically testing the role of migration in spreading this legacy of slavery across the United States.  We begin by estimating county-to-county migration flows for White residents of counties historically dependent on slavery (1880 to 1910).  Newly released data from the Census Tree project allow us to do this at a scale previously unattainable.  We use these migration flows to create a novel proxy of exposure to the institution of slavery that extends beyond the US South.  We employ spatially-informed data analysis techniques to examine the patterning of White migrants from slave-dependent counties; and the relationship between this proxy measure and contemporary county-level Black-White inequality in premature mortality.  Results provide a critical foundation for debates regarding persistent racism, Black-White inequality, and reparations.

Bio: Heather A. O’Connell is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Louisiana State University.  Her research centers on understanding race and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.  While pursuing this objective, she has given notable attention to the enduring structural consequences of historical institutions, particularly slavery.  She has published on topics related to the legacy of slavery as well as Confederate monuments in journals such as Social Forces, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, DuBois Review, and Demography.

Monday, February 23
12pm – 1pm
Zoom

Abstract: Psychosocial development interventions often carry implicit cultural assumptions that may conflict with local culture and norms, potentially reducing their effectiveness. Yet, the costs of such cultural incongruence likely vary by context and fade as individuals become familiar with different cultural frames. We study the causal impact of two versions of a psychosocial intervention in a randomized trial with female microfinance members in Vietnam, a setting where different cultural models of agency coexist. Participants received a training emphasizing either independent or interdependent agency, or no training. Both arms improve economic outcomes, and limited heterogeneity by baseline cultural orientation suggests limited costs of cultural incongruence in this setting.

Bio:

Travis J. Lybbert is Professor of Agricultural & Resource Economics at the University of California Davis, Affiliate of J-PAL and the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, and Chair of the Standing Panel for Impact Assessment of the CGIAR. He works on topics in applied microeconomics ranging from poverty dynamics, hope and aspirations, and nutrition to digital financial inclusion, agricultural technology adoption, and innovation policy. His collaborations with researchers, students, NGOs, governments, and private firms have addressed questions in a wide range of fields and locations, including India, Haiti, Mexico, Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the U.S., and Europe.

Monday, February 9
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom

Monday, February 2
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203 and Zoom

Abstract: We consider a generalized method of moments framework in which a part of the data vector is missing for some units in a completely unrestricted, potentially endogenous way. In this setup, the parameters of interest are usually only partially identified. We characterize the identified set for such parameters using the support function of the convex set of moment predictions consistent with the data. This identified set is sharp, valid for both continuous and discrete data, and straightforward to estimate. We also propose a statistic for testing hypotheses and constructing confidence regions for the true parameter, show that standard nonparametric bootstrap may not be valid, and suggest a fix using the bootstrap for directionally differentiable functionals of Fang and Santos (2019). A set of Monte Carlo simulations demonstrates that both our estimator and the confidence region perform well when samples are moderately large and the data have bounded supports.

Monday, January 26
12pm – 1pm
VPD 203

Abstract:

Background: Family care resources have profound implications for care use among those with functional limitations, especially when coupled with dementia. A better understanding of family availability among those at high risk of dementia is important to predict care transitions at the onset of dementia and subsequent years.

Methods: Using Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data, we developed a holistic measure of family care availability (FCA) for adults 55+ who will have dementia onset within the next two years and have disability. We incorporated multiple family contextual factors, considering presence, disability status, geographic proximity, and working status. We conducted cluster analysis to identify groups based on FCA measures specific to relationship type (spouse, adult child, sibling, grandchild). We then examined variation in FCA across population groups and assessed nursing facility utilization at the onset and over the course of dementia.

Conclusion: The FCA index, a holistic measure of family availability to care, will help identify vulnerable populations lacking family care resources and predict care transitions at the onset and over the course of dementia.

Bio: Dr. HwaJung Choi is an Associate Professor at Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, and Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Michigan. She is also a Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan. She was a Fulbright scholar and received Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Choi is an economist and family demographer whose research focuses on family and community contextual factors and their implications for health and care use among older adults with physical and cognitive limitations. Dr. Choi also examines trends and cross-national differences in health and disability outcomes. She is awarded large research grants from the National Institute on Aging as PI, which support the following studies: to assess the impacts of Covid19 pandemic on care use among adults with dementia (R01AG075002); to examine the implications of residential location for disability and cognitive function outcomes (R01AG080491); to develop and evaluate new measures of family care availability (RF1AG083037). Dr. Choi is a Co-lead of the Research and Education Core at the Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease and supports early-career scientists in advancing their research and training on contextual factors related to dementia risk and care.

In its eighth installment, the Current Innovations in Probability-Based Household Internet Panel Research (CIPHER) Conference expands its scope to include artificial intelligence (AI) as a new area of focus. As always, CIPHER builds on a rich legacy of methodological innovation, international collaboration, and emerging data modalities. Bringing together researchers, technologists, and policymakers, this year’s conference will explore how AI can enhance panel design, data quality, respondent engagement, and ethical governance. Join us as we chart the future of probability-based internet panels at the nexus of artificial intelligence and survey science.

Thursday, March 5
9am – 10am
Zoom (See email for Zoom link)

Thursday, February 5
9am – 10am
Zoom (See email for Zoom link)

Abstract: Cannabis use is one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs worldwide and shows substantial genetic influence. This talk provides an overview of the genetic studies of cannabis use, drawing on evidence from twin studies, early gene-finding efforts, and large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and secondary analyses of these GWAS results. Twin studies indicate moderate heritability, increasing with more severe use, while recent GWAS have identified multiple associated loci, including CADM2. I will present results from the latest, unpublished GWAS of cannabis use frequency, alongside updated analyses of lifetime use, including trans-ancestry findings. Multivariate and causal genetic analyses reveal substantial shared genetic liability with other substance use and psychiatric disorders.

Bio: Karin Verweij is Professor of Genetics in Psychiatry at Amsterdam UMC (Department of Psychiatry), University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the genetic and biological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and human behavior. In particular, she studies substance use and addiction, and the relationship between substance use and psychiatric disorders.

Thursday, January 15
9am – 10am
Zoom (See email for Zoom link)

Abstract: Much is known about how parental resources shape the human capital of children, but far less is known about the role of parental traits and behaviors. Using unique data from the Lifelines Cohort Study linked to administrative records, we study the intergenerational effects of a random increase in parental genetic predisposition for externalizing behavior. There are three main findings. First, a stronger predisposition for externalizing behavior is a strong predictor of hostile behavior, attention deficit disorder, and substance abuse, but is less strongly related to education or income. Second, this predisposition leads to sizeable reductions in the education of the next generation. Third, these intergenerational effects cannot be explained by the genetic endowments of children. Our results thus present a unique case in which intergenerational effects on education exceed the effects on these outcomes in the first generation.

This project is joint work with Sander de Vries

Bio: Sjoerd van Alten is an economist researching the genetic and environmental determinants that shape inequalities in human capital, health, and labor market outcomes. He investigates these topics as a Postdoc Researcher at the School of Business Economics (SBE) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Additionally, some of his work focuses on the effects of selection bias in large-scale Biobanks that are widely used in medicine, epidemiology, statistical genetics, and the social sciences.

He has authored and published various papers on these topics in outlets such as Nature Communications, Nature Genetics, and Intergenerational Journal of Epidemiology. In 2024, he completed his PhD-thesis “Genetics, Human Capital Formation and the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status” at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute, under supervision of Titus Galama, Maarten Lindeboom, and Kevin Thom (UW-Milwaukee).