App Stats: Elwert on "Endogenous Selection" 

 We hope you can join us this Wednesday, April 25, 2012 for the final session of the  Applied Statistics Workshop  this semester.  Felix Elwert , Assistant Professor from the  Department of Sociology  at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will give a presentation entitled "Endogenous Selection". A light lunch will be served at 12 pm and the talk will begin at 12.15. 

 "Endogenous Selection" 
Felix Elwert 
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 
CGIS K354 (1737 Cambridge St.)  
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 12.00 pm 

 Abstract: 
 Selection bias is a central problem for causal inference in the social sciences.  Quite how central a problem it is, however, is often obscured by ambiguous terminology, needlessly technical presentations, and narrow rules of thumb. This paper uses directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)  to advance a precise yet intuitive global definition of endogenous selection bias and argue its theoretical and practical centrality for causal inference. The paper clarifies the fundamental structural difference between confounding and endogenous selection, shows that nearly all non-parametric identification problems relate to either confounding or endogenous selection, and argues that the problem of endogenous selection is indifferent to timing. Perhaps most importantly, we illustrate the importance of endogenous selection bias with numerous and varied examples from empirical social research.  

 This is joint work with Chris Winship.