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Learning control variables and instruments for causal analysis in observational data
This study introduces a data-driven, machine learning-based method to detect suitable control variables and instruments for assessing the causal effect of a treatment on an outcome in observational data, if they exist. Our approach tests the joint existence of instruments, which are associated with the treatment but not directly with...
Presented by: Nicolas Apfel (University of Innsbruck)
Venue: Online
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Professor Peter Lynn gives expert view to BBC Radio 4 on the issues at the Office for National Statistics with the Labour Force Survey
Survey expert Professor Peter Lynn appeared on BBC Radio 4 programme The Briefing Room this week.
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Dr Silvia Avram joins Professor Kristian Gleditsch for Regius Lecture on demographic change
This year’s prestigious lecture brings together experts to examine the potential social, economic and political challenges arising from a future with lower fertility and ageing populations
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Professor Annette Jäckle on BBC Radio 4 More or Less on trusting headline statistics
Unpicking the flaws in the methods of recent survey quoted in the media, claiming 77 per cent of Gen-Z took their parents to job interviews
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Evidence for better policy making – minorities in educational settings
Venue: Broadway House, Tothill Street, Westminster
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Field an experiment or suggest questionnaire content for the next wave of the Innovation Panel for Understanding Society
Competition gives researchers access to the rich household data in the Understanding Society Innovation Panel, and the benefit of testing new ideas with the support of the Understanding Society team
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Football and Anti-migration Sentiment: Evidence from the FIFA World Cup
Natives are often misinformed about immigrants’ characteristics, underestimating the positive potential labor market impacts of their presence and overestimating the cultural differences between both. We investigate if the over-performance of high-migrant football national teams is able to affect migrant perception. Comparing respondents interviewed shortly before with others interviewed shortly after...
Presented by: Giuseppe Ippedico (University of Nottingham)
Venue: Online
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The Inequality Impact of Paid and Unpaid Care Penalties
The daily provision of care for those who need it requires a vast amount of human effort; in the United States, on an average day, 32 million individuals provide paid care and 93 million provide unpaid care. Studies find that both paid and unpaid caregiving carry economic penalties, but the...
Presented by: Pilar Gonalons-Pons (University of Pennsylvania)
Venue: Online
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Acculturation to Gender Norms: Return to Employment by Migrant Origin after the Transition to Parenthood in Finland
The transition to parenthood is an important life course event which is heavily influenced by social policies, institutions, social norms and gender role attitudes. Previous research has shown that there is a migrant-native employment gap that is particularly evident amongst mothers, pointing at the transition to parenthood as an important...
Presented by: Elina Kilpi-Jakonen (University of Turku)
Venue: Online
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Double Machine Learning for Static Panel Models with Instrumental variables: Method and Applications
Panel data applications often use instrumental variables (IV) to address endogeneity, but when instrument validity requires conditioning on high-dimensional covariates, flexible adjustment for confounding is essential and standard estimators like two-stage least squares (2SLS) break down. This paper proposes a novel Double Machine Learning (DML) estimator for static panel data...
Presented by: Annalivia Polselli
Venue: 2N2.4.16
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4th UKMOD Fest – online event, Monday 20 October 2025
A gathering of developers, users and friends of UKMOD, our free tax-benefit microsimulation model for the UK and its constituent nations, to share experiences and ideas related to the model and its applications