Research Seminar Series

2019

Jeff Gill and Jonathan Homola

A Flexible Class of Bayesian Frailty Models

6th May 2019, 4:00 pm- 6:00 pm, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4.3.106)

Abstract

This manuscript reviews basic nonparametric (Cox) survival models and shows how heterogeneous effects on time-to-event outcomes can be captured by frailty terms, which are analogous to hierarchies in multilevel models.
A derivation and simulations are provided to emphasize that not accounting for frailties when present in the data leads to biased coefficients. We then extend the use of frailty models in social science by adding multiple nested and non-nested hierarchies in a Bayesian context. We illustrate the strength and flexibility of our model with applications in American Politics, Comparative Politics, and the Women in Politics literature.

http://jeffgill.org/

Jeff Gill is a Distinguished Professor at the Department of Government and the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at American University in Washington DC. He has published widely on Bayesian hierarchical models, nonparametric models, as well as on fundamental issues in statistical inference. He served as president of the Society for Political Methodology and is currently the editor of Political Analysis, the society’s journal.

2019

Philip Manow (University of Bremen)

The Political Economy of Populism

15th March 2019, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4.3.106)

Abstract

Populism is a multifarious phenomenon. Sometimes from the right, sometimes from the left; sometimes it articulates a protest against open markets, sometimes it turns against migration. Also in its geographic distribution it is rich in variance: in southern Europe leftist populism holds sway, in northern Europe that of the right. Philip Manow develops a comparative explanation for this initially contradictory-seeming picture.
The trigger is created by the respective economic models of growth, the composition of the labour market and the social state, and, in short, the respective political economy. It becomes clear: Whoever wants to talk about populism but leaves out capitalism, will always end up with identity politics – and will inevitably themselves become party to the conflict.

For background information please see Philip Manow's interview in the Falter.

2018

Yadu Chandrasekharan Nair Remadevi

Reflections on Mainstream Economics from Indian Village Studies

20th Nov 2018, 11 am, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4 3.106)

Abstract

This presentation aims to examine the fallacy of the conceptions of mainstream economics in the context of ‘village studies’ done in India. The first part of the presentation will discuss the long tradition of village studies in India in general and the context and design of my village study in particular. The second part will discuss the relevance of these studies for the current discussions around re-orienting economics as a humane social science.

2018

Kenneth A Frank (College of Education, Michigan State University);

Yun-Jia Lo (Independent)

G Geoffrey Booth Eli (Broad College of Business Administration, Michigan State University)

Juha-Pekka Kallunki (Oulu Business School, University of Oulu Stockholm School of Economics School of Business, Aalto University)


The Market Dynamics of Socially Embedded Trading


18th June 2018, 1:00 pm, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4 3.106)

Abstract

Social embeddedness has provided a compelling challenge to neoclassical descriptions of markets. Nevertheless, without a corresponding description of the micro-social forces that counter embeddedness, the description of embeddedness is essentially one dimensional and static, with no theory to integrate the dual forces of embeddedness and markets. In this study we identify a sociological force counter to embeddedness residing in third parties whose presence may interrupt socially embedded informal trading partnerships. Using data from the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1996-7, we confirm that stock trades are socially embedded in partnerships in which trading persists from week to week and in which prices deviate from immediate trading prices. Importantly, we find that trading partnerships are more likely to be interrupted when prices deviate from immediate trading prices and when third parties are present who trade with one or both members of the partnership. Thus, third parties are a critical sociological force in the embeddedness-market dynamic.

2017

Georg Kanitsar

Solidarity and Punishment: An Experiment on the Merits and Perils of Centralized Enforcement

6th Nov 2017, 3.30 pm WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4 3.213)

Abstract

A recent wave of laboratory experiments has emphasized the importance of punishment for the perpetuation of social order. But while these studies have been mainly concerned with the impact of punishment on efficiency – a manifestation of functional integration – its counterpart, solidarity – a realization of social integration – was thus far disregarded. This paper offers experimental evidence on the emergence of solidarity and points to both merits and perils of centralized punishment.

2017

Katrin Auspurg (Institut für Soziologie, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München)

Is It Only The Money That Counts? Experimental Evidence on Gender-Specific Job Preferences

2th June 2017, 11am - 1pm, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4 3.106)

Katrin Auspurg holds a full professorship in Sociology at the University of Munich (Ludwig Maximilian University). She investigates how inequalities in the labor market and the family reinforce each other. In addition, her current projects advance innovative experimental survey methods that allow the testing of causal mechanisms that explain social inequalities or subtle forms of discrimination. Several publications deal with methodological research on factorial survey experiments. She has recently published in the American Journal of Sociology, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, and Soziale Welt.

2017

Raymond Duch (Nuffield College, University of Oxford)

Experiments and the ‘Truth’: How Robust are Treatment Effects?

30th January 2017, 4pm - 6pm, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (D4 3.106)

Raymond Duch is an Official Fellow at Nuffield College and is the Director of the Nuffield Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (CESS). He received his PhD from the University of Rochester. He is currently the Long Term Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the Toulouse School of Economics. Professor Duch has served as Associate Editor of the American Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Experimental Political Science. He is one of the founders of the European Political Science Association and the International Meeting on Behavioural Science (IMEBESS) and is currently Vice-President of the Midwest Political Science Association. In 2015, Professor Duch was selected as a member of the UK Cabinet Office Cross-Whitehall Trial Advice Panel to offer Whitehall departments technical support in designing and implementing controlled experiments to assess policy effectiveness. He was recently nominated to the Evidence in Governance and Politics network.