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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

Call for Applications: UW Summer Short Course – Network Modeling for Epidemics

Network Modeling for Epidemics (NME) is a 5-day short course at the University of Washington that provides an introduction to stochastic network models for infectious disease transmission dynamics, with a focus on empirically based modeling of HIV transmission. It is a ”hands-on” course, using the EpiModel software package in R (www.epimodel.org). EpiModel provides a unified framework for statistically based modeling of dynamic networks from empirical data, and simulation of epidemic dynamics on these networks. It has a flexible open-source platform for learning and building several types of epidemic models: deterministic compartmental, stochastic individual-based, and stochastic network models. Resources include simple models that run in a browser window, built-in generic models that provide basic control over population contact patterns, pathogen properties and demographics, and templates for user-programmed modules that allow EpiModel to be extended to the full range of pathogens, hosts, and disease dynamics for advanced research. This course will touch on the deterministic and individual-based models, but its primary focus is on the theory, methods and application of network models.

The course uses mornings for lectures, and afternoons for labs with students working in small groups. On the final day, students have the option of developing an EpiModel prototype for their own research projects, with input from the instructors, which includes the lead EpiModel software developer, Dr. Samuel Jenness.

Returning students: We encourage previous attendees with active modeling projects to apply to return for a refresher course. The EpiModel package has been significantly enhanced over the last few years. Returning students with active projects will have the opportunity to work with course instructors to address key challenges in the design of their network model code.

Dates and location
The course will be taught from Monday, August 20 to Friday, August 24 on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

Costs
Course fee is $600. Travel and accommodation costs are the responsibility of the participant, although discounted hotel rates are available. We offer a limited number of fee waivers for pre-doctoral students or for attendees from low income countries.  These cover waiver of the registration fee only; travel and accommodation are still the responsibility of the fee waiver recipient.

Application dates and decision dates
*    Apr 1: Fee waiver application deadline. Decisions will be made by Apr 15, and response required by May 1.

*    May 1:  General application deadline. Decisions will be made by May 15 and a response required by June 1. A waitlist will be established with rolling admission through June 30.

Application
Apply online at https://catalyst.uw.edu/webq/survey/morrism/347069

Course website and more information: http://statnet.github.io/nme

The Extent of Local Minimum Wage Spillovers (Mark Long presents at CSSS Seminar, 2/14/18)

Mark Long, CSDE Affiliate, Associate Dean for Research and a Professor at Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, Adjunct Professor of Economics 

Cities and states in the U.S. are increasingly implementing large increases in local minimum wages as a means of combating income inequality. Such policies are prompted by sluggish changes in the federal minimum wage, which has not been increased since 2009 and which is not indexed to account for inflation. The City of Seattle passed a local minimum wage ordinance in 2014, which raised the minimum wage for work done in the city from $9.47 to $11 per hour in 2015, to $13 per hour in 2016, and to $15 per hour in 2017. Using rich administrative data, this paper evaluates the extent to which the 2015 and 2016 increases in the minimum wage had effects on local areas surrounding the city. In particular, we evaluate whether it caused a change in average hourly wages and hours worked by low-wage workers in areas outside of the city limits.

Economists have long recognized that labor, economic, and social policies are often implemented at the local level (e.g., city, county, or state), and have used variation of policy regimes across space and time to study the impact of these policies. Spatial and temporal variation in policy regimes provide a natural experiment in which regions that implement a policy are assigned as the treatment group, and regions that did not implement it are used as controls. A common empirical approach compares the temporal difference in outcomes in the treated region to the temporal difference in outcomes in an immediately adjacent region. Advocates for this “boundary-discontinuity” method contend that it would be reasonable to expect the treated region and immediately adjacent region to have parallel trends in outcomes in the absence of the policy innovation. The parallel trends assumption is key to all difference-in-differences estimations. However, the boundary-discontinuity method can fail if spillover effects occur. When a city establishes a minimum wage, it is likely that low-wage workers currently employed outside of the city boundaries will look for jobs inside the city boundaries to take advantage of the higher wages. These workers might displace some workers employed in the city before the minimum wage was implemented. In reaction, employers outside of city boundaries might raise wages to low-wage workers to retain their workforce. Conversely, if displaced city workers or persons unable to find jobs in the city at the higher minimum seek jobs in nearby jurisdictions, the resulting increase in supply may exert downward pressure on wages. As a result, spillover effects may lead to an increase or decrease in wages and, hence, employment in the adjacent region, which in turn would bias difference-in-differences estimates of the policy’s impact.

In our current working paper, we find evidence of a substantial spillover effect of Seattle’s minimum wage on adjacent regions. We estimate that regions within a 40-minute drive to Seattle increased wage rates for low-wage workers by 30% of the increase that we estimate to have occurred in Seattle, though this effect is not precisely estimated. The same regions also experienced employment decreases on the order of 70% of Seattle’s employment decrease. This impact is large and significantly different from zero. Furthermore, we show that ignoring this spillover effect leads to an underestimate of the effect of the minimum wage hike on wage rates and employment within Seattle. When we re-estimate the impact of the minimum wage in Seattle using the popular adjacent county approach, we find a wage effect of about 58% and an employment effect of about 20% of the ones obtained in the specification which allows for spillovers. As a result, the impact on earnings (i.e. a key policy outcome) is misestimated, leading to incorrect conclusions about the welfare implications of a local minimum wage.

CSDE Biomarker Working Group

For those interested in using biological data in social and behavioral science research, consider joining our working group. We aim to provide a venue for informal discussions of practical and theoretical issues associated with collecting and using biomarker data, and to offer opportunities to discuss early-stage research ideas or present preliminary results. This working group is open to all students, faculty, and staff. All meetings are from 12:30 – 2pm in 114 Raitt Hall. Please contact organizer Ellie Brindle (ebrindle@uw.edu) for more information.

Upcoming Biomarker Working Group Meetings:

Thurs Feb 22:  Biomarkers of Immune Function

Thurs March 15:  Butch de Castro, Professor and Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, UW School of Nursing

Thurs April 19:  Noah Snyder-Mackler, Asst Professor, UW Dept of Psychology

Thurs May 17:  Ben Trumble, Asst Professor (and CSDE alum), School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

Thurs June 7 (tentative):  topic TBA

Those who would like to receive regular meeting announcements may subscribe to the mailing list here:  http://mailman.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/biomarker_group

Scott Allard’s Findings on Disparities in Human Services Funding Cited in Washington Post Article

Affiliate Scott Allard, Professor at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, was cited in a recent Washington Post article addressing the increasing inability of suburban health services to meet the high demand for health care in suburban areas, many of which have residents living in poverty. Further complicating the issue is the fact that suburban areas have tended to receive less funding for health services than urban centers. To highlight this disparity in funding, the article points to Allard’s finding—as demonstrated in his book Places in Need: The Changing Geography of Poverty—that funding for human services is up to eight times greater in urban areas than in their suburban counterparts. The full article is accessible below.

Publications by CSDE Affiliates Featured in Russell Sage Foundation Press Spring Catalog

Three books authored by CSDE affiliates were featured in the Russell Sage Foundation Press Spring 2018 Catalog:

Donald Chi Explores Outcomes for Communities Served by Dental Therapists in YK Delta

A study by affiliate Donald Chi, Associate Professor of Oral Health Sciences, and colleagues that explores the role that treatment by Dental Therapists plays in dental health outcomes in Alaska Native communities in the Yukon Kuskokwim (YK) Delta was recently published in the Journal of Public Health Dentistry. Using data from the YK Health Corporation dental clinic electronic health record (EHR) and 10 years of Medicaid claims, principal investigator Chi and his co-investigators assessed five community-level outcomes—three for children and two for adults—based on number of Dental Therapist treatment days. The study demonstrates that a higher number of Dental Therapist treatment days is associated with better dental health outcomes—specifically, greater rates of preventative care and lower rates of treatment, such as extractions—for communities in the YK Delta. The full study is accessible below.

CSDE Staff Scientist Matt Dunbar, Assistant Director and Spatial Demographer, and Michael Babb, former Research Scientist and Trainee, were a critical component of this project’s study team. Donald Chi made use of CSDE’s expertise in geocoding and data linking in order to bring together Alaska Medicaid Data and Dental Clinic Health Records based on community of residence. Please contact CSDE staff within any one of our service areas to inquire about how we can support your population research.

Visiting Professor of Sociology

The Department of Sociology, Social Work & Anthropology at Utah State University invites applications for a Visiting Professor in Sociology (an appropriate rank will be assigned at the time of appointment). This is a one-year appointment for the 2018-2019 academic year with the possibility of renewal in 2019-2020. We seek candidates who have completed doctoral coursework in Sociology, Demography, or a related discipline to collaborate with Professors Eric Reither and Sojung Lim on health-related research projects. The successful candidate will have outstanding quantitative skills, strong research interests in population health or social epidemiology, and the ability to teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Utah State University is a Carnegie Doctoral land-grant university of higher research activity that serves over 27,000 students from all 50 states and 78 foreign countries. The Sociology program at the Logan campus has approximately 400 undergraduate majors/minors and 40 graduate students working on M.S. or Ph.D. degrees. Logan is located in a picturesque mountain valley with a population of over 50,000 about 80 miles north of Salt Lake City. Ski resorts, lakes, rivers, and mountains in the area make it one of the finest outdoor recreation environments in the nation. Visit www.usu.edu for more information.

In the first year of this appointment, the candidate will teach one undergraduate course (likely Social Inequality) and one M.S.-level graduate course in social statistics. If the appointment continues into a second year, the candidate will teach one undergraduate course (again, likely Social Inequality) and a graduate course on basic and intermediate techniques of demographic analysis. The candidate will also collaborate with Professors Eric Reither and Sojung Lim on health-related research projects of mutual interest.

Review of applications will begin March 1, 2018 and continue until position is filled. An offer will be contingent upon a successful background check. Salary: Commensurate with experience, plus excellent benefits. Please refer your questions to the search committee Chair, Eric Reither (eric.reither@usu.edu, 435-797-9856).

Minimum Qualifications

Successful candidates must have attained ABD status in Sociology, Demography or a related discipline by the employment date. Candidates must be adept in advanced methods of statistical and demographic analysis and provide evidence of a health-focused research agenda.

Preferred Qualifications

Preference will be given to candidates with a completed PhD and prior teaching experience.

“HomeLandLab” (Brice Maryman gives College of Built Environments Equity Council Talk, 2/14/18)

Visible homelessness is increasingly arriving in cities’ public spaces, raising questions about the role of public space in confronting spike in people experiencing homelessness.

Brice Maryman, ASLA, PLA (UW MLA) discusses his ongoing Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellowship project and eponymous podcast, HomeLandLab, which is focused on exploring the intersection of homelessness and public space in urban America.

 

Call for Applications: IPUMS CPS Summer Data Workshop

Using the Panel Component of IPUMS CPS

June 4-6, 2018 at the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota

IPUMS CPS is accepting applications for its summer workshop, designed to familiarize researchers with the under-utilized panel component of the CPS. The workshop is targeted towards graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty from social science disciplines.

The workshop will include:

  • presentations from the research team that developed IPUMS CPS and experienced CPS researchers
  • lab sessions with hands-on experience using CPS longitudinally
  • small-group sessions to discuss CPS research ideas with others who have similar interests

Applications are due March 2, 2018.

Applicants should submit

  • information about their professional backgrounds
  • a short statement regarding their interest in using the panel component of CPS
  • a letter of support form an advisor or senior colleague

Up to $1,000 in expenses for the workshop will be covered; eligible expenses include domestic air fares, local transportation costs, and hotel accommodations.

Apply to attend the 2018 IPUMS CPS Summer Data Workshop.

A printable flyer with information about the data workshop is also available.

Support for this workshop is provided by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (R01HD067258).

Call for Papers: International Conference on Aging in the Americas

The Conference Series on Aging in the Americas (CAA) is aimed at utilizing research to augment knowledge about dimensions of healthful aging for people of Hispanic and Latin American descent and fostering emerging scholars in the field as this topic rapidly develops as a major policy and national budget issue.

Each CAA installment or ICAA has several goals, one is to promote interdisciplinary collaboration by gathering a broad array of researchers in the fields of Hispanic health, health care policy, and behavioral and social aspects of aging into a single forum to exchange ideas and foster collaborative efforts aimed at addressing key issues affecting the health of aged Hispanics. The conference research agenda is unique in its focus on the aging population in the United States and Mexico and has important implications for the health and well-being of older Hispanic adults and their families.

The University of Arizona in partnership with the UT Austin, UCLA, USC, and UTMB will host the 2018 International Conference on Aging in the Americas.

Call for Papers

All poster abstracts should include the following information:

  • Project Title
  • Lead-author’s name, email address, and classification (undergraduate student, graduate student, postdoc, or assistant professor)
  • Brief summary of the research project (300 words or less)

Poster Abstracts should be submitted via email to: Sunshine Rote, Ph.D.
University of Louisville
sunshine.rote@louisville.edu

Abstract Submission Dates
Open: April 15, 2018
Close: May 31, 2018
Decisions: July 2, 2018