*New* Register Now for 2026 Northwestern Main and Advanced Causal Inference Workshops (Starting 08/03/26)

Register Now for 2026 Northwestern Main and Advanced Causal Inference Workshops (Starting 08/03/26)

Posted: 4/23/2026 (Conference)

The Northwestern Main and Advanced Causal Inference Workshop will hold its 15th annual meeting on Research Design for Causal Inference at Northwestern Law School in Chicago, IL. The main workshop takes place Monday – Friday, August 3-7, and the advanced workshop follows, Monday – Wednesday, August 10-12, with an optional machine learning primer on Sunday afternoon, August 9.

What is special about these workshops:

1. World-class speakers working at the frontier of causal inference research

2. Stata and R Coding sessions with exclusive access to the dedicated repository

3. Breakout sessions for feedback on your own research

In person-registration is limited to 125 participants for each workshop, so hurry up and register for in person attendance! There will also be a Zoom option, but attending in person is encouraged. Get more information and register now.

Detailed information on the workshops

Workshop Overview: We will cover true randomized experiments and contrast them to natural or quasi experiments and pure observational studies, where part of the sample is treated, the remainder is a control group, but the researcher controls neither which units are treated vs. control, nor administration of the treatment. We will assess the causal inferences one can draw from specific “causal” research designs, threats to valid causal inference, and research designs that can mitigate those threats.

Most empirical methods courses survey methods. We will begin instead with the goal of causal inference, and how to design a research plan to come closer to that goal, using messy, real-world datasets. The methods are often adapted to a particular study.

Advanced Workshop Overview: The advanced workshop provides in-depth discussion of selected topics, beyond what the main workshop covers. The principal topics for 2026 are application of machine learning methods to causal inference; advanced difference-in-differences methods, and advanced instrumental variable methods.

Target Audience for Main Workshop: Quantitative empirical researchers (including faculty, graduate students, post-docs, and other researchers) in social science, including law, political science, economics, many business-school areas (finance, accounting, management, etc.), medicine, sociology, education, psychology, etc. –anywhere that causal inference is important.

We will assume knowledge, at the level of an upper-level undergraduate econometrics or similar course, of multivariate regression, including OLS and logit; basic probability and statistics; and basic understanding of instrumental variables. This course should be suitable both for empirical researchers with PhD-level training and for those with reasonable but more limited training.

Target Audience for Advanced Workshop: Empirical researchers who are familiar with the basics of causal inference (from the main workshop or otherwise), and want to extend their knowledge. We will assume familiarity with potential outcomes, difference-in-differences, and instrumental variable methods.

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Location: Northwestern University