Spring 2025 Schedule
FRIDAY, January 24 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Spring Kick-Off! All UMN Graduate Student Meeting & MPC/LCC Information Session
Learn more about the benefits and opportunities of becoming a member of the Minnesota Population Center and/or the Life Course Center.
FRIDAY, January 31 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
How Different Disciplines Think about Causality
With Janna Johnson, and Theresa Osypuk
FRIDAY, February 7 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
How to Choose a Journal to Publish Your Article
With Rob Warren, Heather Randell, and Diana Magnuson
FRIDAY, February 14 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Didn't Get the Results You Expected? Strategies to Publish Null Findings
With Rob Warren, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, and Andy Fenelon
FRIDAY, February 21 | 12:15 - 1:15 pm
Introduction to the Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC)
Learn about the FSRDC from Cathy Fitch and Gina Erickson, including the application process and what data are available.
FRIDAY, February 28 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
All About Lit Searches
With Mike Esposito and Michelle Eilers
FRIDAY, March 7 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Causal Mediation Analysis (Application & Conceptual Theory)
With Nick Graetz
FRIDAY, March 21 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Second Year Population Studies Trainee Presentations
Xiting Zhang, Hyeyun Jeong, Brayden Rothe, and Desiree Alvarez-McNelis
FRIDAY, March 28 | EXTENDED TIME
PAA Poster Practice Session
Join us in giving constructive feedback to those preparing to share posters at PAA.
FRIDAY, April 4 | EXTENDED TIME
PAA Presentation Practice Session
Join us in giving constructive feedback to those preparing to present at PAA.
FRIDAY, April 18 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Level Up Your Positionality Statement
With Bhaskar Upadhayay
FRIDAY, April 25 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Spatial Data Linkage (e.g. Joining Contextual Data to Microdata)
With Tracy Kugler.
FRIDAY, May 2 | 12:15 - 1:45 (Extended)
Three Paths to Equality: New Causal Decomposition Tools
Felix Elwert, Ph.D., Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, University of Wisconsin
Social and medical scientists often ask how an intervening variable contributes to observed group-based outcome disparities. Examples include the roles of education in generating gender wage gaps, racial health disparities, and intergenerational income mobility. We introduce a new nonparametric decomposition approach to put this enterprise on a firm causal footing. We make three contributions. First, we introduce a previously overlooked disparity-generating mechanism; second, we show how to isolate three distinct mechanisms under unstructured effect heterogeneity; third, we develop machine learning estimators with desirable properties. Empirically we enumerate, isolate, and identify the multiple and nearly countervailing causal roles that college graduation plays in intergenerational income mobility in the United States. (Joint work with Ang Yu: https://doi.org/10.1214/24-AOAS1990)
FRIDAY, May 9 | 12:15 - 1:15 PM
Matching Techniques (Propensity Scores - When to Use and When Not to Use)
With David Hacker and Janna Johnson