Courses: Course information

Symposium "Causal effects - Designs and Analysis"

From July 17 to 19, 2008 was held a conference at the "Altes Schloss Dornburg" near Jena.

Goals of the Symposium were

1. Bringing together different traditions of analysis of causal effects (regression-based analyses, analyses based on propensity scores, analyses with instrumental variables), discussion of the state-of-the-art,
2. Discussion of non-standard designs and problems (missing data, non-compliance, multilevel designs, regression discontinuity designs),
3. Meeting of leading proponents of different fields where the analysis of causal effects plays an important part.

Organizational structure

The structure of the conference was closely followed the "Symposium on Causality 2006". There were held 7 focus presentations by leading proponents in different fields of causality research. Each focus presentation was discussed and supplemented by two invited discussants, followed by an open discussion among all participants. There was also room for participants to present their own research in short presentations and poster sessions.

For further information, please visit the website of the Symposium on Causality 2008.

In order to view the videos, you need the VLC media player which you can download here. The videos are hosted at the Digitale Bibliothek Thüringen (dbt). The green linked videos and materials are for free. Click the green link to watch the video or download the file! In order to access all materials and videos, you need to log in.

Videos

	Wednesday, July 16	Thursday, July 17	Friday, July 18	Saturday, July 19
09:00 - 10:00		Focus-Presentation Shadish "The Empirical Program of Quasi-Experimentation: A Program of Research" Video 01 with slides	Focus-Presentation Steyer "Generalized Analysis of Covariance" Video 05 with slides	Focus-Presentation Rubin "The Importance of Objective Design" Video 09 with slides
10:00 - 10:30		Invited discussion Nagengast Video 01 with slides	Invited discussion Steiner Video 05 with slides	Invited discussion Kang "Causal Inference with a putative cause measured with error" Video 09 with slides
10:30 - 10:45		Invited discussion Cook Video 01 with slides	Invited discussion Winship Video 05 with slides	Invited discussion West Video 09 with slides
10:45 - 11:15		General discussion Video 01 with slides	General discussion Video 05 with slides	General discussion Video 09 with slides
11:15 - 11:30		Coffee break	Coffee break	Coffee break
11:30 - 12:30		Short Talk Pohl "A Randomized Experiment Comparing Random to Nonrandom Assignment - A replication of Shadish & Clark" Video 02 with slides	Short Talk Kröhne "Generalized ANCOVA - Monte Carlo Studies" Video 06 with slides	Short Talk Silvestrini "Ex-ante Evaluation of programs in development cooperation" Video 10 with slides
		Short Talk Kuss "Do Randomized and Non-Randomized Trials Yield Different Answers in Similar Populations? - Evidence from a 'Meta-Propensity Score' Analysis in Cardiac Surgery" Video 02 with slides	Short Talk Mutz "Hidden Bias in Causal Regression - Results of a Monte Carlo Study" Video 06 with slides	Short Talk Foster "G-estimation and children's services" Video 10 with slides
		Short Talk Wong "Better quasi-experimental practice: The regression-discontinuity design" Video 02 with slides	Short Talk Janzing "Justifying a new type of causal inference methods by the algorithmic Markov condition" Video 06 with slides
		Short Talk Fiege "Fair Comparisons in School Effectiveness Studies and their Causal Interpretation" Video 02 with slides
12:30 - 14:00		Lunch break	Lunch break	Lunch break
14:00 - 15:00		Focus-Presentation Winship "Endogenous Selection" Video 03 with slides	Focus-Presentation Cook "The Relative Importance of Covariate Choice, Reliability of Covariates and Analytic Method in Reducing Bias in Observational Studies" Video 07 with slides	Short Talk Sanduvete "Effectiveness of training programs: A meta-analysis" Video 11 with slides
15:00 - 15:30		Invited discussion Wegscheider Video 03 with slides	Invited discussion Briggs "Cause or Effect? Validating the Use of Tests for High-Stakes Inferences in Education" Video 07 with slides	General discussion Video 11 with slides
15:30 - 15:45		Invited discussion Sobel Video 03 with slides	Invited discussion Rubin Video 07 with slides	General discussion Video 11 with slides
15:45 - 16:15		General discussion Video 03 with slides	General discussion Video 07 with slides	General discussion Video 11 with slides
16:15 - 16:30		Coffee break	Coffee break
16:30 - 17:30		Focus-Presentation Sobel "Analysis of Mediator Effects" Video 04 with slides	Focus-Presentation West "Observational Studies: Towards improving Design and Analysis" Video 08 with slides
17:30 - 18:00		Invited discussion Klein Video 04 with slides	Invited discussion Chacon-Moscoso Video 08 with slides
18:00 - 18:15		Invited discussion Steyer Video 04 with slides	Invited discussion Shadish Video 08 with slides
18:15 - 18:45		General discussion Video 04 with slides	General discussion Video 08 with slides
19:00				Farewell Dinner
19:30	Welcome Reception
20:30			Guided tour through Jena
20:45		Conference Dinner

Material related to the contributions

Thomas D. Cook - "The Relative Importance of Covariate Choice, Reliability of Covariates and Analytic Method in Reducing Bias in Observational Studies"

• Three Conditions under which Experiments and Observational Studies often produce comparable Causal Estimates: New Findings from Within-Study Comparisons
• The Importance of Covariate Selection in Controlling for Selection Bias in Observational Studies

Donald B. Rubin - "The Importance of Objective Design"

• Outcome-free Design of Observational Studies: Peer Influence on Smoking
• Figure 1
• Figure 2

• Using Propensity Scores to Help Design Observational Studies: Application to the Tobacco Litigation
• The design versus the analysis of observational studies for causal effects: Parallels with the design of randomized trials

William R. Shadish - "The Empirical Program of Quasi-Experimentation: A Program of Research"

• The Empirical Program of Quasi-Experimentation
• Can Nonrandomized Experiments Yield Accurate Answers? A Randomized Experiment Comparing Random to Nonrandom Assignment
• An Empirical Program on Quasi-Experimentation

Rolf Steyer - "Generalized Analysis of Covariance"

• The Theory of Individual and Average Causal Effects
• Analyzing Causal Effects by Generalized Analysis of Covariance Using EffectLite
• Slides of the discussion to the focus presentation of Michael Sobel - "Analysis of Mediator Effects"

• EffectLite for LISREL
• Manual for EffectLite for LISREL

• EffectLite for Mplus
• Manual for EffectLite for Mplus

Michael Sobel - "Analysis of Mediator Effects"

• Identification of Causal Parameters in Randomized Studies With Mediating Variables
• Identification of Causal Parameters in Randomized Studies with Mediators
• Slides of the discussion to the focus presentation of Christopher Winship - "Endogenous Selection"

Stephen G. West - "Observational Studies: Towards improving Design and Analysis"

• Alternatives to the Randomized Controlled Trial
• Equating Groups

Christopher Winship - "Endogenous Selection"

• Endogenous Selection Bias

Discussions

Derek Briggs - "Cause or Effect? Validating the Use of Tests for High-Stakes Inferences in Education"

• Synthesizing Causal Inferences
• Meta-Analysis: A Case Study
• Comment: Making an Argument for Design Validity before Interpretive Validity

Joseph Kang - "Causal Inference with a putative cause measured with error"

• Average Causal Effects from Observational Studies: A Practical Guide and Simulated Example
• Demystifying Double Robustness: A Comparison of Alternative Strategies for Estimating a Population Mean from Incomplete Data