EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

EBookClubs

Read Books & Download eBooks Full Online

Book Estimating Causal Effects with Matching Methods in the Presence and Absence of Bias Cancellation

Download or read book Estimating Causal Effects with Matching Methods in the Presence and Absence of Bias Cancellation written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research presents the full text of the December 2000 working paper entitled "Estimating Causal Effects with Matching Methods in the Presence and Absence of Bias Cancellation," written by Thomas A. DiPrete and Henriette Engelhardt. The text is available in PDF format. This paper uses the Rubin-style of matching methods to examine the implications of possible bias cancellation. The authors show how missing data can complicate the estimation of causal effects.

Book SAGE Quantitative Research Methods

Download or read book SAGE Quantitative Research Methods written by W Paul Vogt and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 1761 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 40 years, SAGE has been one of the leading international publishers of works on quantitative research methods in the social sciences. This new collection provides readers with a representative sample of the best articles in quantitative methods that have appeared in SAGE journals as chosen by W. Paul Vogt, editor of other successful major reference collections such as Selecting Research Methods (2008) and Data Collection (2010). The volumes and articles are organized by theme rather than by discipline. Although there are some discipline-specific methods, most often quantitative research methods cut across disciplinary boundaries. Volume One: Fundamental Issues in Quantitative Research Volume Two: Measurement for Causal and Statistical Inference Volume Three: Alternatives to Hypothesis Testing Volume Four: Complex Designs for a Complex World

Book The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology written by Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier and published by Oxford Handbooks of Political. This book was released on 2008 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science are the essential guide to the state of political science today. With engaging contributions from major international scholars The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology provides the key point of reference for anyone working throughout the discipline.

Book Passing the Torch

    Book Details:
  • Author : Paul Attewell
  • Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
  • Release : 2007-04-05
  • ISBN : 1610440196
  • Pages : 287 pages

Download or read book Passing the Torch written by Paul Attewell and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-04-05 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The steady expansion of college enrollment rates over the last generation has been heralded as a major step toward reducing chronic economic disparities. But many of the policies that broadened access to higher education—including affirmative action, open admissions, and need-based financial aid—have come under attack in recent years by critics alleging that schools are admitting unqualified students who are unlikely to benefit from a college education. In Passing the Torch, Paul Attewell, David Lavin, Thurston Domina, and Tania Levey follow students admitted under the City University of New York’s “open admissions” policy, tracking its effects on them and their children, to find out whether widening college access can accelerate social mobility across generations. Unlike previous research into the benefits of higher education, Passing the Torch follows the educational achievements of three generations over thirty years. The book focuses on a cohort of women who entered CUNY between 1970 and 1972, when the university began accepting all graduates of New York City high schools and increasing its representation of poor and minority students. The authors survey these women in order to identify how the opportunity to pursue higher education affected not only their long-term educational attainments and family well-being, but also how it affected their children’s educational achievements. Comparing the record of the CUNY alumnae to peers nationwide, the authors find that when women from underprivileged backgrounds go to college, their children are more likely to succeed in school and earn college degrees themselves. Mothers with a college degree are more likely to expect their children to go to college, to have extensive discussions with their children, and to be involved in their children’s schools. All of these parenting behaviors appear to foster higher test scores and college enrollment rates among their children. In addition, college-educated women are more likely to raise their children in stable two-parent households and to earn higher incomes; both factors have been demonstrated to increase children’s educational success. The evidence marshaled in this important book reaffirms the American ideal of upward mobility through education. As the first study to indicate that increasing access to college among today’s disadvantaged students can reduce educational gaps in the next generation, Passing the Torch makes a powerful argument in favor of college for all.

Book Targeted Learning

    Book Details:
  • Author : Mark J. van der Laan
  • Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
  • Release : 2011-06-17
  • ISBN : 1441997822
  • Pages : 628 pages

Download or read book Targeted Learning written by Mark J. van der Laan and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-17 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The statistics profession is at a unique point in history. The need for valid statistical tools is greater than ever; data sets are massive, often measuring hundreds of thousands of measurements for a single subject. The field is ready to move towards clear objective benchmarks under which tools can be evaluated. Targeted learning allows (1) the full generalization and utilization of cross-validation as an estimator selection tool so that the subjective choices made by humans are now made by the machine, and (2) targeting the fitting of the probability distribution of the data toward the target parameter representing the scientific question of interest. This book is aimed at both statisticians and applied researchers interested in causal inference and general effect estimation for observational and experimental data. Part I is an accessible introduction to super learning and the targeted maximum likelihood estimator, including related concepts necessary to understand and apply these methods. Parts II-IX handle complex data structures and topics applied researchers will immediately recognize from their own research, including time-to-event outcomes, direct and indirect effects, positivity violations, case-control studies, censored data, longitudinal data, and genomic studies.

Book Overcoming the Odds

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jennie E. Brand
  • Publisher : Russell Sage Foundation
  • Release : 2023-08-31
  • ISBN : 1610448936
  • Pages : 327 pages

Download or read book Overcoming the Odds written by Jennie E. Brand and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year, millions of high school students consider whether to continue their schooling and attend and complete college. Despite evidence showing that a college degree yields far-reaching benefits, critics of higher education increasingly argue that college “does not pay off” and some students - namely, disadvantaged prospective college goers - would be better served by forgoing higher education. But debates about the value of college often fail to carefully consider what is required to speak knowledgeably about the benefits –what a person’s life might look like had they not completed college, or their college counterfactual. In Overcoming the Odds sociologist Jennie E. Brand reveals the benefits of completing college by comparing life outcomes of college graduates with their college counterfactuals. Drawing on two cohorts of nationally representative data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Longitudinal Surveys program, Brand uses matching and machine learning methods to estimate the effects of college completion across students with varying likelihoods of completing four-year degrees. To illustrate her findings, Brand describes outcomes using matched vignettes of college and non-college graduates. Brand shows that four-year college completion enables graduates to increase wages and household income, while also circumventing unemployment, low-wage work, job instability, poverty, and social assistance. Completing college also increases civic engagement. Most of these benefits are larger for disadvantaged than for more advantaged students, rendering arguments that college has limited benefits for unlikely graduates as flawed. Brand concludes that greater long-term earnings, and less job instability and unemployment, and thus more tax revenue, less reliance on public assistance, and high levels of volunteering indicate that public investment in higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds yields far-reaching collective benefits. She asserts that it is better for our society when more people complete college. Overcoming the Odds is an innovative and enlightening exploration of how college can transform lives.

Book Transitioning to Adulthood in Asia  School  Work  and Family Life

Download or read book Transitioning to Adulthood in Asia School Work and Family Life written by Wei-Jun Jean Yeung and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past decade or so, scholars in the United States have identified the emergence of a new, distinct stage of life, as adolescence has become protracted, and most young people of recent generations take longer to achieve economic and psychological autonomy than they did a half century ago. This new life stage, in between adolescence and adulthood when young people are in a semiautonomous state, has come to be known as "early adulthood." Main characteristics of this new life stage include a later entry into the work force, a longer period of time living in the natal home, and a delayed age at marriage and childbearing. These trends not only have profound implications for young adults' well-being and intergenerational relationships but also challenge social institutions, such as family, schools, labor markets, and many youth-serving institutions.

Book Estimating Causal Direct and Indirect Effects in the Presence of Post treatment Confounders

Download or read book Estimating Causal Direct and Indirect Effects in the Presence of Post treatment Confounders written by Yasemin Kisbu Sakarya and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In investigating mediating processes, researchers usually use randomized experiments and linear regression or structural equation modeling to determine if the treatment affects the hypothesized mediator and if the mediator affects the targeted outcome. However, randomizing the treatment will not yield accurate causal path estimates unless certain assumptions are satisfied. Since randomization of the mediator may not be plausible for most studies (i.e., the mediator status is not randomly assigned, but self-selected by participants), both the direct and indirect effects may be biased by confounding variables. The purpose of this dissertation is (1) to investigate the extent to which traditional mediation methods are affected by confounding variables and (2) to assess the statistical performance of several modern methods to address confounding variable effects in mediation analysis. This dissertation first reviewed the theoretical foundations of causal inference in statistical mediation analysis, modern statistical analysis for causal inference, and then described different methods to estimate causal direct and indirect effects in the presence of two post-treatment confounders. A large simulation study was designed to evaluate the extent to which ordinary regression and modern causal inference methods are able to obtain correct estimates of the direct and indirect effects when confounding variables that are present in the population are not included in the analysis. Five methods were compared in terms of bias, relative bias, mean square error, statistical power, Type I error rates, and confidence interval coverage to test how robust the methods are to the violation of the no unmeasured confounders assumption and confounder effect sizes. The methods explored were linear regression with adjustment, inverse propensity weighting, inverse propensity weighting with truncated weights, sequential g-estimation, and a doubly robust sequential g-estimation. Results showed that in estimating the direct and indirect effects, in general, sequential g-estimation performed the best in terms of bias, Type I error rates, power, and coverage across different confounder effect, direct effect, and sample sizes when all confounders were included in the estimation. When one of the two confounders were omitted from the estimation process, in general, none of the methods had acceptable relative bias in the simulation study. Omitting one of the confounders from estimation corresponded to the common case in mediation studies where no measure of a confounder is available but a confounder may affect the analysis. Failing to measure potential post-treatment confounder variables in a mediation model leads to biased estimates regardless of the analysis method used and emphasizes the importance of sensitivity analysis for causal mediation analysis.

Book Matching Methods for Estimating Causal Effects Using Multiple Control Groups

Download or read book Matching Methods for Estimating Causal Effects Using Multiple Control Groups written by Elizabeth Anne Stuart and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Annual Review of Political Science

Download or read book Annual Review of Political Science written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mission of Annual review of political science is to provide systematic, periodic examinations of the field through critical authoritative reviews. The comprehensive critical review not only summarizes a topic but also roots out errors of fact or concept and provokes discussion that will lead to new research activity. Each review contains title, author(s), key words, abstracts, review and bibliography.

Book The Estimation of Causal Effects by Difference in difference Methods

Download or read book The Estimation of Causal Effects by Difference in difference Methods written by Michael Lechner and published by Foundations and Trends(r) in E. This book was released on 2011 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph presents a brief overview of the literature on the difference-in-difference estimation strategy and discusses major issues mainly using a treatment effect perspective that allows more general considerations than the classical regression formulation that still dominates the applied work.

Book Estimating Causal Effects

Download or read book Estimating Causal Effects written by Barbara Schneider and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains the value of quasi-experimental techniques that can be used to approximate randomized experiments. The goal is to describe the logic of causal inference for researchers and policymakers who are not necessarily trained in experimental and quasi-experimental designs and statistical techniques.

Book Estimating Causal Effects in the Presence of Spatial Interference

Download or read book Estimating Causal Effects in the Presence of Spatial Interference written by Keith W. Zirkle and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Environmental epidemiologists are increasingly interested in establishing causality between exposures and health outcomes. A popular model for causal inference is the Rubin Causal Model (RCM), which typically seeks to estimate the average difference in study units' potential outcomes. If the exposure Z is binary, then we may express this as E[Y(Z=1)-Y(Z=0)]. An important assumption under RCM is no interference; that is, the potential outcomes of one unit are not affected by the exposure status of other units. The no interference assumption is violated if we expect spillover or diffusion of exposure effects based on units' proximity to other units and several other causal estimands arise. For example, if we consider the effect of other study units on a unit in an adjacency matrix A, then we may estimate a direct effect, E[Y(Z=1,A)-Y(Z=0,A)], and a spillover effect, E[Y(Z, A)=Y(Z, A`)]. This thesis presents novel methods for estimating causal effects under interference. We begin by outlining the potential outcomes framework and introducing the assumptions necessary for causal inference with no interference. We present an association study that assesses the relationship of animal feeding operations (AFOs) on groundwater nitrate in private wells in Iowa, USA. We then place the relationship in a causal framework where we estimate the causal effects of AFO placement on groundwater nitrate using propensity score-based methods. We proceed to causal inference with interference, which we motivate with examples from air pollution epidemiology where upwind events may affect downwind locations. We adapt assumptions for causal inference in social networks to causal inference with spatially structured interference. We then use propensity score-based methods to estimate both direct and spillover causal effects. We apply these methods to estimate the causal effects of the Environmental Protection Agency's nonattainment regulation for particulate matter on lung cancer incidence in California, Georgia, and Kentucky using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. As an alternative causal method, we motivate use of wind speed as an instrumental variable to define principal strata based on which study units are experiencing interference. We apply these methods to estimate the causal effects of air pollution on asthma incidence in the San Diego, California, USA region using data from the 500 Cities Project. All our methods are proposed in a Bayesian setting. We conclude by discussing the contributions of this thesis and the future of causal analysis in environmental epidemiology.

Book Investigating Covariate Selection Criteria

Download or read book Investigating Covariate Selection Criteria written by Uday K. Nair and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of causal effect estimation is to find the true impact of a treatment or exposure. Observational data is employed in social sciences to estimate causal effect but is susceptible to self-selection and unobserved confounding biases. Covariates included in analysis should strive to address these biases. This research focuses on investigating covariate selection approaches--common cause criterion (CC), Disjunctive Cause Criterion (DCC), Modified Disjunctive Cause Criterion (MDCC), and modified cause criterion (MCC)--in linear regression (LR) and propensity score methods (PSM) causal effect estimation in the presence of unmeasured confounding. Realistic social science scenarios such as--inclusion of proxy variables with varying degrees of strength, misidentification of the unmeasured covariate as a confounder, small sample sizes, and measurement error in proxy covariates--were investigated. For LR and PSM, five causal effect estimation models were built using different covariate selection approaches and compared on three performance metrics--bias, coverage, and empirical SE. Results showed that in the presence of an unmeasured confounder, the causal effect estimate is biased. Study 1 results indicate that MDCC approach resulted in more consistent and efficient causal effect estimates in the presence of unmeasured confounders. Studies 2a and 2b indicate that the MDCC approach is robust to the unobserved variable being a confounder and can be employed even if the unmeasured covariate is not a confounder without adversely impacting the performance measures. Studies 3 and 4 showed including a proxy of the unmeasured confounder, even a weak proxy (r ~ 0.20) or one with measurement error, results in an improvement in the consistency of the causal effect estimate and in the efficiency of the causal effect estimator. As the correlation between the proxy covariate and the unmeasured confounder gets smaller the causal effect estimator becomes less efficient and the causal effect estimate becomes less consistent.

Book Developing a Protocol for Observational Comparative Effectiveness Research  A User s Guide

Download or read book Developing a Protocol for Observational Comparative Effectiveness Research A User s Guide written by Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (U.S.) and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2013-02-21 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This User’s Guide is a resource for investigators and stakeholders who develop and review observational comparative effectiveness research protocols. It explains how to (1) identify key considerations and best practices for research design; (2) build a protocol based on these standards and best practices; and (3) judge the adequacy and completeness of a protocol. Eleven chapters cover all aspects of research design, including: developing study objectives, defining and refining study questions, addressing the heterogeneity of treatment effect, characterizing exposure, selecting a comparator, defining and measuring outcomes, and identifying optimal data sources. Checklists of guidance and key considerations for protocols are provided at the end of each chapter. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews. More more information, please consult the Agency website: www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov)

Book Sociological Abstracts

Download or read book Sociological Abstracts written by Leo P. Chall and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CSA Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,800+ serials publications, and also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.