Harvard Chan School hosts a diverse array of speakers, invited to share both scholarly research and personal perspectives. They do not speak for the School, and hosting them does not imply endorsement of their views, organizations, or employers.

Loading Events
  • This event has passed.

How to Break Something by Fixing It

March 30th, 2022 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Kaufman headshot

The Department of Epidemiology Seminar Series

Speaker:

Jay S. Kaufman, PhD
Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, & Occupational Health, McGill University

Abstract:

Recent years have witnessed a tremendous disciplinary cross-pollination in which epidemiology has borrowed heavily from other methodological traditions, for example the infusion of econometric methods into social epidemiology.  Methodological traditions arise within a field from its unique history and culture, including philosophical approaches to quantification and causal inference.  To exemplify some of the differences in worldview between epidemiology and economics, I will highlight the handling of clustering, as both an analytic challenge (hierarchical data) and as a design strategy (matching).  Causal tools from one discipline reveal the limitations and dangers of the practices that characterize the other. I review the good, the bad and the ugly from fixed effects designs like exposure-discordant siblings, and how insights from both epidemiology and economics balance the pros and cons of this method in health research.

Details

Date: March 30th, 2022
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Calendars: Public Events, School-wide Events, University-wide Events
Event types: Lectures / Seminars / Forums

Venue

Virtual
Register for Zoom link