David Beavers, "Causes and Consequences of Americans' Dwindling Trust in the Media"
Abstract
Across various survey firms, question wordings, and modes, the evidence is overwhelming that Americans’ trust in media has declined precipitously since the mid-20th century. Americans' decline in trust in the media has outpaced the decline in trust in other institutions in the U.S. and exceeds that of all other wealthy industrialized democracies. In this project, I explore the causes and consequences of Americans' dwindling trust in the media in three...
This full-day workshop offers hands on instruction on learning and applying several GIS and mapping techniques commonly used by those practicing in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The workshop will include discussion and interactive exercises aimed to contextualize the usage of geography and maps for each participant's individual research or teaching interests.
Chris Blattman (University of Chicago), "Gang Rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance" (link to paper)
Abstract
Criminal groups govern millions worldwide. Even in strong states, gangs resolve disputes and provide security. Why do these duopolies of coercion emerge? Often, gangs fill vacuums of official power, suggesting that increasing state presence should crowd out criminal governance. We show, however, that state and gang rule are sometimes complements. In particular, gangs could minimize seizures and arrests by keeping neighborhoods orderly and loyal. If true, increasing state presence could increase incentives for gang rule. In Medellín, Colombia, criminal leaders told us they rule to protect drug rents from police. We test gang responses to state presence using a geographic discontinuity. Internal border changes in 1987 assigned blocks to be closer or further from state security for three decades. Gangs exogenously closer to state presence developed more governance over time. They primarily did so in neighborhoods with the greatest potential drug rents. This suggests new strategies for countering criminal governance.... Read more about Chris Blattman (Alesina Seminar)
Yi Zhang (Department of Statistics), "Optimal Individualized Treatment Rules under Clustered Network Interference"
Abstract
TBA
The Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) meets all academic year, Wednesdays, 12pm-1:30pm, in CGIS K354. This workshop is a forum for advanced graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars to present and discuss methodological or empirical work in progress in an interdisciplinary setting. The workshop features a tour of Harvard's statistical innovations and applications with weekly...
Marcel Roman, "The Immigration-to-Reproduction Shift: Latino Population Growth and White Support for Legal Abortion"
Abstract
The literature on White Americans’ reaction to demographic change largely focuses on immigration policy at the expense of reproductive politics. We extend past research on White backlash against ethnic diversification to the domain of reproductive policy—testing the idea that prejudiced Whites will support abortion in response to growing minority populations as a means of slowing demographic change via non-White...