| Thursday, October 9, 2025 16.00 – 17.00 Room: P1 | |
| Keynote Speaker: Jennie E. Brand |
Abstract:
This talk reviews recent advances in causal inference, focusing on uncovering treatment effect heterogeneity. Uncovering sources of effect heterogeneity is key for understanding the implications of the distribution of scarce resources, effectively assigning treatments to maximize average outcomes, and generalizing to populations beyond those under study. The talk focusses on propensity and covariate-based partitioning strategies and tree-based methods for assessing effect heterogeneity. To demonstrate methods for assessing effect heterogeneity, I draw on an empirical application of estimating the heterogeneous effects of completing a four-year college degree in the U.S. on reducing socioeconomic disadvantage over the career.
Prof. Jennie E. Brand is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Professor of Statistics and Data Science (by courtesy), and Co-Director of the Center for Social Statistics (CSS) at UCLA. She is the past President of the Association of Population Centers and, beginning in August 2025, the President of the International Sociological Association Research Committee on Social Stratification and Mobility (RC28). Prof. Brand studies social stratification and inequality, mobility, social demography, education, and methods for causal inference. Her current research agenda encompasses three main areas: access to and the impact of higher education; the socioeconomic and social-psychological consequences of disruptive events, such as job displacement; and causal inference and the application and innovation of quantitative methods for panel data. Recent work explores causal inference and machine learning for the social sciences.
More information: http://www.profjenniebrand.com/