The Washington Center for Equitable Growth would like to invite you to a virtual event, “Getting on the GRID: Accessing and using statistics from the Global Repository of Income Dynamics,” on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, from 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT.
The webinar will delve into the data available at the Global Repository of Income Dynamics, a research project that assembles comparable cross-country statistics on income inequality and other income dynamics. Millions of estimates have already been released by the team, which is directed by Fatih Guvenen of the University of Minnesota, Luigi Pistaferri of Stanford University, and Gianluca Violante of Princeton University and currently composed of 51 economists working in 13 different countries.
Join us for a talk by Dr. Asad Islam (Monash University) about “Forced Displacement, Mental Health, and Child Development: Evidence from the Rohingya Refugees.” This talk will present findings from a recent study by Dr. Islam utilizing a cluster randomized controlled trial on 3,500 Rohingya mother-child dyads in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Participants were given weekly psychosocial support for 44 weeks through peer volunteers, which includes psychoeducation and parenting support for mothers and play activities for both mothers and children. The intervention was largely successful and led to: (i) reductions in the psychological trauma and depression severity of mothers and children, (ii) improvements in communication, gross-motor, and problem-solving skills of children, and (iii) reductions in stunting and severe stunting. The intervention cost about $1 per dyad per week and is currently being scaled up in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where about seventeen thousand mother-child pairs now benefit from it.
Make sure to check out the next CSDE Workshop entitled “Agent Based Modeling in R.”, providing a basic introduction into Agent-Based Modeling. The workshop will be divided into three sections. During the first third of the course we will review and discuss the basic elements of ABMs and their application in a variety of fields including demography, sociology, anthropology, political science and public health. In the second section of the course we will work through 1 or two seminal example of an ABM and reproduce the models in base R. Due to the limited time available, the R code to build these models will be provided to participants in advance. Finally, we will walk through an example of a complex ABM using the statnet and EpiModel R packages. Students will not require these packages to complete the workshop.
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to describe the unique features of ABM that make them distinct from other modeling approaches, write R functions to produce a simple ABM, and be familiar with additional R packages that provide functionality for ABM.
Join us for a talk by Dr. Asad Islam (Monash University) about “Forced Displacement, Mental Health, and Child Development: Evidence from the Rohingya Refugees.” This talk will present findings from a recent study by Dr. Islam utilizing a cluster randomized controlled trial on 3,500 Rohingya mother-child dyads in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Participants were given weekly psychosocial support for 44 weeks through peer volunteers, which includes psychoeducation and parenting support for mothers and play activities for both mothers and children. The intervention was largely successful and led to: (i) reductions in the psychological trauma and depression severity of mothers and children, (ii) improvements in communication, gross-motor, and problem-solving skills of children, and (iii) reductions in stunting and severe stunting. The intervention cost about $1 per dyad per week and is currently being scaled up in refugee camps in Bangladesh, where about seventeen thousand mother-child pairs now benefit from it.
CSDE Affiliate Donald Chi and colleagues examine the determinants of topical fluoride hesitancy for caregivers of dependent children in a new paper published in PLOS ONE. The article utilizes qualitative methods, interviewing 56 fluoride-hesitant caregivers to develop an inductive conceptual model of reasons why caregivers are hesitant despite extensive evidence that topical fluoride is safe and prevents tooth decay. Very interesting research and congrats Dr. Chi!
The GIS Symposium highlights and celebrates the transformational role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and data visualization technologies at the UW and beyond. The event will feature a keynote lecture (more details coming soon) followed by short talks from the UW GIS community. Proposal submissions are now closed, but details are available at GIS Symposium 2023.
On April 19 from 3-4pm Dr. Yan Zhang (U of Wisconsin) will join CDWG to discuss her novel statistical approach to understanding the linkage between parenthood and cognitive health with NHATS data which has not been explored in-depth in the United States. Dr. Zhang is postdoc research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Center for Demography of Health and Aging. Her research agenda focuses on family demography, population health, aging & life course, and gender & sexuality. She is particularly interested in examining how family relationships influence health outcomes among aging population. Currently her research investigates the association between parenthood (i.e., parental status, parent-child relationship, and fertility history) and older adults’ risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
The Joint Seminar in Development Economics is pleased to announce that Samuel Bazzi (UC San Diego) will be presenting on Monday, April 17 from 11 am to 12:30 pm. The seminar will take place in person in Savery 410. Title and abstract are below, and a draft of the paper is available on request. The talk entitled “Frontier History and Gender Norms in the United States” will explore how historical gender roles become entrenched as norms over the long run. If you’d like to attend virtually, find the zoom link here.
The Seminar has some slots to meet individually with Professor Bazzi or join him for lunch. Please sign up here. Please contact imcohen@uw.edu if you have any questions about the meeting or the seminar.
The Washington Sea Grant Hershman Fellowship offers a unique educational opportunity for soon-to-graduate and recently finished graduate students in ocean, coastal, and policy issues. This one-year paid fellowship matches qualified individuals with host agencies, nonprofits, and tribes throughout Washington. Fellows gain first-hand experience supporting marine science, conservation, and policy work and opportunities to share their academic expertise with their host offices.
The UW Harry Bridges Center, Department of History, Latin American Studies, and American Ethnic Studies are collaborating on a special event marking the release of historian Maria Quintana’s new book Contracting Freedom: Race, Empire, and U.S. Guestworker Programs (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). The book is the first relational study of the origins of twentieth-century U.S. guest worker programs from Mexico and the Caribbean. Quintana’s book offers an expansive interpretation of those government-sponsored programs and draws historical connections between enslaved labor, Japanese American incarceration, Caribbean decolonization, New Deal programs, and Black freedom struggles. The program will take place in the Allen Library at 3:30pm and will include the author and several scholars who will reflect on the book’s relevance.