This Friday, Thomas B. (Brad) Foster from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies will present his research on the gender gap in earnings by linking individuals’ responses to Census Bureau surveys (like the ACS and CPS) with their W-2 earnings records. His research seeks to improve our measurement and understanding of the gender wage gap—explaining this gap in wages has proven difficult, particularly as women have come to “look more like men” with respect to their human capital endowments, because of limitations on publicly available data. While these data sources provide good measures of human capital, most do not allow researchers to fully account for labor force experience and occupational choice simultaneously, much less with sufficient sample sizes or precision.

Designed to complement formal course instruction, CSDE Workshops are offered in a shorter, more accessible format responsive to the specific demographic research needs of CSDE’s Trainees and Faculty Affiliates. This Winter quarter, CSDE is offering Workshops on the topics below. Click on any Workshop to learn more and register:

• Portable Methods for Biomarker Data Collection in the Field – Eleanor Brindle (Wednesday January 22, 3:00 – 4:30 PM in Raitt 230)
• Intro to Python and Jupiter Notebooks – Mike Babb (Monday January 27, 2:30 - 5:30 PM in SAV 117)
• Reproducible GIS analysis with R - Phil Hurvitz (Wednesday, February 12, 2:30 - 5:30 PM in SAV 117)
• Intro to Stata - Christine Leibbrand (Wednesday, February 26, 2:30 - 4:30 PM in SAV 117)

There is a high interest in using mobile phones to collect health information, which may be a low-cost and efficient way to engage with hard-to-reach populations, nevertheless there can be limitations to population representation when using such data. During the Fall 2019 Lightning Talks, CSDE Trainee Claire Rothschild presented a winning poster that demonstrated the methodological promises and pitfalls of mobile phone data collection and access. Claire and her collaborators (CSDE Affiliates Alison Drake, Brandon Guthrie, and Grace John-Stewart) focused on evaluating population representation among samples of women who participate in studies using mobile phone-based data collection in Kenya and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

CSDE’s Migration and Spatial Mobilities Working Group will have its first meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 11:30AM – 12:30PM. This is a multidisciplinary group for UW scholars interested in the study of migrations or spatial mobilities in which we present “work in progress” that would benefit from feedback and suggestions from the members of the working group. During this meeting, CSDE Trainee Neal Marquez (from the UW Sociology Department) will present on “Internal Migration of Mexican Nationals in the United States”

Calling all CSDE Trainees! We would love to hear about your work at the CSDE Winter 2020 Trainees Lightning Talks and Poster Session on March 13! Please consider submitting a brief abstract for consideration. In the session, you can:

• Get awesome feedback from an interdisciplinary set of scholars
• Make new connections with researchers working in similar areas
• Practice your presentation skills, perhaps to help you prepare for PAA or another upcoming conference
• Use it for a class that requires a poster presentation

If any (or all) of these appeal to you, you may apply by completing a short form through the this link by Wednesday, January 29, 2020. CSDE will recognize the best poster with an award and prize. Posters will be assessed based on design, content, and presentation.

Beginning January 1, 2020, through an agreement between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics, (NCHS), NIH will reimburse the NCHS National Death Index (NDI) for the costs of NIH-supported investigators to link their research databases with the NDI for the research aims supported by the NIH. “NIH-supported investigators” refers to extramural investigators actively funded by the NIH, contract investigators working under an active contract with the NIH,  and intramural researchers employed by the NIH. 

Faculty and post-doctorates, mark your calendars! There is an upcoming Faculty Workshop on NIH Diversity Supplements on February 27th and 28th. The topics that will be covered during the workshop include:

• Purpose and benefits of applying for NIH Diversity Supplements (Administrative or Minority Supplements)
• NEW eligibility criteria, application process and components of a successful application
• Panel discussion highlighting the experiences of current UW faculty who have been awarded Diversity Supplements