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ESRC Workshops

Posted by Economist Channel on Tuesday, May 31, 2016 Label:

The Stirling Behavioural Science Centre will host eight Behavioural Science Workshops in 2014/16, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council

Context & Aims: The purpose of this workshop series is to bring together economics and psychology researchers in key areas of research and practice to discuss open questions on measurement in behavioural and social sciences. The workshops are being coordinated by Michael Daly, Liam Delaney, Leonhard Lades and Alex Wood of the Behavioural Science Centre at the University of Stirling School of Management with considerable input from other members of the centre. There are three main themes of the workshops:


Theme 1: The use of large datasets
The use of secondary datasets within economics is a primary methodology but awareness and use of these datasets remains low within psychology. Such secondary datasets have started to contain a large number of constructs (such as personality at multiple time points) meaning there is a lot of scope for psychologists to benefit from these resources. The decades of experience within economics can bring much to psychology in terms of statistical expertise developed through long engagement with demonstrating causality and isolating effects in this kind of data.

Theme 2: Improving measurement
Methods developed within psychology can be used to better collect economically-relevant data in both small and large studies. The development of novel measures (e.g. bio-tracking, real-time activity monitoring, day reconstruction and life-reconstruction methods) points to potential solutions to the constraints and limitations of traditional secondary databases. However, such developments also lead to open questions regarding the statistical properties and validity of such measures, their underlying assumptions, the impact of using non-probability or small samples, and the potential of these measures for examining substantive research questions at the national and cross-national levels. As with promoting the use of secondary datasets, improving measurement is a key challenge that can be best met through interdisciplinary research between economics and psychology.

Theme 3: Well-being
Third, underpinning each of the priorities is a concern for individual well-being. This has particularly important policy implications. The Office for National Statistics has begun to measure well-being on a national scale, allowing the government to evaluate national wellbeing progress alongside traditional economic indices. Increasingly it is emerging that socio-economic factors relate differently to well-being depending on how exactly well-being is conceptualised and measured. Building in such understanding to the design of future datasets and the formulation of policy recommendations remains a key challenge for furthering each of the priorities. Research within psychology has examined these issues in depth for decades, providing a strong impetus for better collaboration of this discipline with economics, where the study of subjective variables is still quite novel. 
Seminar Format : A series of six one-day workshops will be held in Management School at the University of Stirling. The workshops will be held over two years beginning in February 2014. The timings of subsequent workshops will be: May 2014, August 2014, October 2014, February 2015 and June 2015. Each workshop will bring together a total of eight leading academics and industry/policy researchers from the UK, Europe, and US who are committed to delivering a set of presentations that maps directly to a specific research theme as described below. Each workshop will have an attendance of 40 individuals including speakers. 

Participation Policy: A broad set of academic speakers and leading industry/policy researchers have committed to engage with the proposed seminar series. Our speakers are drawn primarily from economists and psychologists with strong complementary interests in behavioural economics and applied microeconomics. 

Details of the workshops will be made available below. Precise dates for the later workshops will be provided in due course. 

Workshop 1: Measurement and Determinants of Well-Being: Stirling, February 21st 2014. 

The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in focus on human well-being in economics and psychology. Many large-scale national and international surveys have adopted diverse measures of well-being (e.g. positive affect, life-satisfaction, eudemonic well-being) and tracked change within these variables over time. This workshop will draw on the strengths of psychologists familiar with the theoretical nuances and psychometric properties of various measures of well-being and economists with experience in employing sophisticated time-series and quasi-experimental approaches to the analysis of well-being data. Speakers will present empirical findings detailing the link between diverse measures of well-being and economic and demographic factors. This workshop will act to highlight the potential of subjective well-being data and increase awareness of the analytic approaches used to address substantive research questions using large-scale secondary data sources. The workshop will open up debate with industry/policy researchers regarding the extent to which diverse well-being measures can inform and assist in the evaluation of economic policies.

See our summary of this workshop here.

See also follow-up event held in conjunction with Scottish Universities Insights Institute. 


This workshop will showcase frontier approaches that aim to enhance the sophistication and the frequency with which social science data is collected. Speakers will outline innovative methodological tools and their application to key themes such as the measurement of well-being, behaviour, and attitudes. These include employing innovative measures of affect and behaviour, such as the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM), construction of representative longitudinal panel surveys and continuous surveys of cross-sections of the population that are capable of gauging patterns of welfare, behaviour, and opinions at the monthly or even daily level (e.g. American Life Panel (ALP); European Commission Flash Eurobarometer, Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index).

See our summary of this workshop here.

Workshop 3: Early Life Influences on Later Life Health and Behaviour: Stirling, 19th September 2014.

There is now an abundance of large government databases, which often assess detailed psychological, economic, and health measures in samples of tens of thousands of participants over several years or even decades. The initial workshop will address the ESRC’s priority objective of fostering research that capitalizes on the expanding data resources available in the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) archive and comparable international depositories. Speakers in this workshop will demonstrate how the precise psychometric measurement of constructs such as intelligence, temperament/personality, and adverse conditions initially and over several years of follow-up can be used to probe the mechanisms underlying the unfolding of economic, health and welfare outcomes as well as inequalities across these domains. The use of life-reconstruction to produce retrospective accounts of early conditions will be addressed, studies utilizing this data presented, and the limitations (e.g. recall, desirability biases) of this approach discussed.

Workshop 4: Preferences and personality: Stirling, 21st November 2014

One of the major challenges in economics is understanding the statistical properties of measures of time, risk, and social preferences and evaluating the validity of such measures. This workshop will focus on empirical research examining economic preferences in laboratory and real-world settings. Speakers will address the reliability of traditional preference measures, their structure across demographic characteristics, innovations in measurement, and links between preference estimates and objective economic and biological measures. We have invited speakers who are engaged in the theoretical and empirical mapping of preference measures to personality traits which have been shown to have substantial predictive validity for important life outcomes (e.g. income, disease morbidity and mortality, employment). Taken together, this workshop will enhance cross-talk and expand the common conceptual ground that exists between personality psychologists and economists interested in the assessment of preferences in the UK and Europe. Furthermore, it will cultivate frontier thinking regarding the future data-collection priorities for social science in the UK and further afield.

Workshop 5: Biological markers in behavioural science: Stirling, February 27th 2015.

Increasingly detailed assessments of biological markers of human functioning are now an important component of large-scale government surveys in the social sciences (e.g. NCDS, Add Health). In contrast to measures of health perceptions, biological measures are cardinal in nature and attractive to economists as potential outcome measures, for instance in labour and health economics.  Yet, understanding of measures of inflammatory, metabolic, neuroendocrine and cardiovascular functioning which are commonly used in the medical community remains limited amongst many social scientists. To address this issue this workshop will include talks from researchers who are leading the integration of biological measures into economics and psychology. The workshop will address the structure of the primary biological measures examined in social surveys and the potential biological basis of economic decisions. 

Workshop 6: Behavioural science and public policy: Stirling, June 2015

The final workshop will be dedicated to the interface between behavioural science and public policy. Researchers involved in the empirical estimation of policy effects and in the understanding and shaping of the theoretical principles that inform policy have agreed to present. A key theme of this workshop will be the measurement and data needs and priorities of those conducting policy research and methods through which key measures such as well-being, preference parameters, personality, and biological measures could be integrated into policy research to a greater extent and the advantages that this approach may yield.

Workshop 7: Mental Health and Economics: Stirling, March 2016. 

This workshop, taking place in Stirling on March 24th, brings together academics across economics, psychology and health disciplines as well as practitioners and policy-makers to examine the emerging literature on mental health, work and the economy. The workshop will critically address several themes including, but not limited to, the economic determinants of well-being and mental health, the contribution of mental health to life-long economic trajectories, the potential for expansion of the mental health services, and the role of mental health in labour market policy. We hope to have an open workshop with a combination of presentation of academic findings, critical perspectives and discussion of policy implications.

Workshop 8: Behavioural, Science, Measurement and Policy: Stirling, April 2016. 

This workshop addresses innovations in measurement in the social and behavioural sciences. It is the eight and final workshop in our series. We examine a number of key themes in the development of innovative and pragmatic survey design including: (i) the use of short-form psychometric measures, item banks and wearable devices to measure behaviour, attitudes, and health and well-being in a brief-yet-precise manner and (ii) the use of administrative data linkage to economic, education, and health databases to capitalise more fully on the information collected in large-scale government surveys which can be used to address policy questions. In addition, this workshop will consider ethical and privacy considerations, issues of response bias, the extent to which participants will give accurate responses, the potential impact of measurement in a policy context on subsequent behaviour, and the traits and behaviours that are particularly important to measure in different policy contexts. It will also address problems of statistical inference and publication bias that relate to the presence of widespread secondary data and private researcher decisions. 

Stirling Behavioural Science Events Autumn 2016

Posted by Economist Channel on Sunday, May 29, 2016 Label:
Below is our list of Autumn events in behavioural science at Stirling. It will evolve over the summer. As always, suggestions for collaboration across and outside the campus are welcome. 

September 2016 

Wednesday September 21st 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar 

Thursday September 22nd and Friday September 23rd: Workshop on Behavioural Science: Ethics, Evidence and Policy (Joint with Newcastle Law School) 

Wednesday September 28th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar 

October 2016 

Wednesday October 5th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

Wednesday October 12th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar 

Wednesday October19th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

Wednesday October 26th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

November 2016 

Wednesday November 2nd 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

Wednesday November 9th 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

Wednesday November 16th 12pm to 4pm: Workshop on Economics, Behavioural Science and Youth Unemployment 

Wednesday November 23rd 4pm: Behavioural Science Seminar

Friday November 25th: Irish Economics and Psychology Session (Belfast) 

Wednesday November 30th 4pm: Stirling University Behavioural Medicine Meet-up 

Applying behavioural insights to regulated markets

Posted by Economist Channel on Thursday, May 26, 2016 Label:
The Behavioural Insights Team released a report recently on "Applying behavioural insights to regulated markets". Details below. Readers of the blog and current/former students here should find this very useful.
"This report is structured as follows:

Section 1 sets out the traditional justification for regulatory design, and makes the case to redefine this to reflect behavioural market failures.

Section 2 details the ways in which consumers’ decision making systematically deviates from what would be expected from a ‘rational actor’ in regulated markets (specifically energy, telecoms, personal finance and pensions). It describes eight behavioural biases and explains how they influence consumer behaviour within regulated markets. These biases are: status quo bias; anchoring effects; choice overload; framing effects; present bias; temporal effects; overconfidence; and scarcity mindset. The biases are organised in order of magnitude against two measures: the amount of damage the bias causes the consumer, and the potential effectiveness of remedies. This section also briefly assesses examples of current regulatory approaches to address these biases, and concludes that a more systematic and deliberate approach is needed.

Section 3 puts forward a new vision for the regulation of consumer markets, focussing in on four key areas. First, set the criteria for what a well-functioning market looks like from a consumer perspective. Second, collect and publish data to see whether the market is performing on a ‘well functioning’ scale, and identify behavioural market failures. Third, design remedies to overcome identified behavioural market failures. These include more innovative approaches to consumer education like designing and promoting simple heuristics, setting smart defaults, creating timely and smart disclosures, aligning supplier and consumer penalties, and supporting and enabling the work of choice engines and complaint aggregators. Fourth, test if the remedies are actually leading to better outcomes for consumers, and iterate.

Section 4 concludes by offering recommendations for how Citizens Advice can advocate for and develop this new vision with regulatory partners, as well as directly with consumers.".

New resource for jobs in behavioural economics

Posted by Economist Channel on Wednesday, May 11, 2016 Label:
The website behaviouraleconomics.com has added a new section where employers and candidates can submit jobs and CVs. It has just launched so it's a little threadbare but the framework looks good.

4 PhD Studentships in Economics and/or Behavioural Science at Stirling Management School

Posted by Economist Channel on Monday, May 9, 2016 Label:
Post Details
4 PhD Studentships in Economics and/or Behavioural Science at Stirling Management School 
Full-Time with Start Date on October 1st 2016 (with some flexibility)
Closing date: 5pm on 8th July 2016
Salary: EU Fees plus £14,000 per annum

The Post
Description of Duties

Project 1:  Understanding career inequality in Scotland and the UK

This 3-year PhD studentship, jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Skills Development Scotland (SDS), is targeted at a highly motivated individual who wishes to work with our team on a study on a project entitled "A Lifespan Approach to Understanding Equality of Opportunity and Career Development in Scotland and the UK" . The successful applicant will conduct their PhD either in Economics or in Business and Management working with Professor Liam Delaney and Dr. Michael Daly of the Stirling Management School Behavioural Science Centre. This project will utilise the substantial cohort study data available in the UK to examine the drivers of labour market inequality across the UK with a particular focus on Scotland and differences between Scotland and RUK. The project will apply longitudinal data analysis techniques to examine gender, ethnic, disability, religious and socioeconomic differences in key education and employment outcomes across the life-cycle. We will utilise the National Child Development Cohort Study, British Cohort Study, Understanding Society and other large UK data-sets. We will examine the extent to which inequalities interact with the development of a wide range of hard and soft skills throughout childhood and adolescence, providing key information on the potential importance of such skills to labour market outcomes across the lifespan. We will publish the findings in a range of academic journals in economics, psychology and wider social science. The work builds on our previous SDS-funded project which has published several papers in top-tier journals examining the role of mental health and non-cognitive traits in shaping labour market outcomes. We will continue to disseminate the findings of this work to policy-makers and the wider public through our active social media and workshop programme and in conjunction with the SDS. The PhD student will be guided to work within this project but given substantial support to develop their own independent ideas within the overall topic.

Eligibility: Please see details of whether you are eligible to apply on the relevant ESRC website 

Project 2: Microsimulation models of devolved taxes and benefits

This project seeks to develop and enhance models of devolved taxes and benefits across the UK. The intention is to calibrate the effects of the new tax and welfare powers that have been devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland. It may also involve analysis of the new fiscal powers that may be devolved to the Welsh Assembly and to English local government.  We seek a suitable PhD candidate with strong quantitative skills and an understanding of UK fiscal structures who would enhance our existing micro-simulation models for the purpose of policy simulation and forecasting. This would require an economics graduate with a masters degree that includes a strong element of econometric analysis. The applicant will be involved in our developing collaboration with a number of institutions outside Scotland which have an established track record in fiscal analysis, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London.

Project 3: Behavioural Economics and Retirement Saving

This project, co-funded by Prudential and Stirling, examines the behavioural economics of retirement saving in the UK, with particular reference to retirement preparedness in the context of the recent changes in annuities regulations in the UK. The programme of research will progress over three years. The first year will be devoted to the development of a comprehensive review of the behavioural economics literature on retirement saving, annuities and related issues, with particular reference to the policy implications of the recent change to the annuities regulation in the UK. The second year will be devoted to the development of research papers examining the impact of these changes on retirement behaviour in the UK, and the development of survey instruments to examine a range of retirement-related behaviours. The third year will be devoted to the production of a series of papers on retirement behaviour in the UK pre and post the annuities reforms. This research has the potential for high academic impact, given the uniqueness of the policy change, and the potential for the construction of new data in this area.

The project addresses a strong business need for companies to understand how consumers are using the new freedoms available to them since the reform of annuities in 2015. Consumers are now free to cash in their pension pots as lump sums at retirement, rather than purchasing an annuity. This is a radical change that has sent shock-waves throughout the industry and it comes with a range of complex potential costs and benefits for both consumers and firms. Objective information on how consumers are using these freedoms would heavily inform the public debate, as well as allowing the large providers to reposition their products and long-run strategic plans to adapt to this very different market reality. The student will be supervised by Professor Liam Delaney and Michael Daly. The successful candidate will be located in the division of Economics, and will also be part of the Stirling Management School behavioural science research centre. 

Project 4: Risk Perceptions, Risk Communication Strategies, and Consumer Behaviours

This 3-year Ph.D. studentship is jointly funded by Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and University of Stirling.  We seek highly motivated individuals with a keen interest in working with our team on a project titled “Risk Perceptions, Risk Communication Strategies, and Consumer Behaviours”. This Ph.D. research is motivated by the need to investigate the effectiveness of risk communication strategies, such as public awareness campaigns, that aim to motivate positive behaviour change towards best food-handling practices to prevent foodborne cases. This is a key priority area due to the persistent food safety issues and significant health, societal, and economic costs of foodborne cases to the country in each year.

The research will use a unique applied microeconometrics framework that integrates approaches from the Stated Preference Elicitation with insights from the behavioural economics (e.g., nudges, framing). This will lead to a deeper understanding of consumers’ risk perceptions, attitudes, and preferences for different forms of food safety information delivery.  The study will contribute to academia and policy by investigating a current public policy issue in a real-setting by developing an information campaign with FSS in Scotland.  Using various campaign treatments and consumer choice surveys, we will compare a range of communication strategies.  The rich consumer choice and behavioural data will be analysed using various advanced econometric choice models that accommodate for individual differences. The modelling framework will be based on consumer choice theory and random utility theory and will be augmented with behavioural insights and individual attitudes.

The student will be supervised by Dr Erdem and Dr Campbell from the Economics Division, and Dr Jacqui McElhiney from Food Standards Scotland. Erdem has expertise in food safety economics, eliciting consumer perceptions, preferences and decision-making. She has published several papers in internationally renowned journals and has successful Ph.D. supervision (completed and ongoing). Campbell has expertise in economic evaluation in agricultural and food economics, particularly in choice modelling. He has an extensive experience in supervising PhDs. McElhiney is the Head of Food Protection Science and Surveillance Branch at FSS. She will provide technical expertise as appropriate along with colleagues in FSS. We expect the student to make regular visits to FSS to access relevant data and resources, as well as to foster knowledge exchange. The Ph.D. student will take at least 3 graduate (or equivalent) level modules during their Ph.D.: either internal (e.g., the econometric course(s), behavioural economics and statistics modules within the School); or from the SGPE or targeted summer school modules. Additionally, they will receive training from both Erdem and Campbell on the econometric methods during their Ph.D.

Essential Criteria
Strong interest in research relevant to the project.  
MSc training in economics, behavioural science or relevant social science disciplines, including evidence of (advanced) econometrics/statistics training experience.
Econometric modelling skills and proficiency in a statistical package, such as STATA, SPSS, R or OxMetrics.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Ability to work individually and autonomously as well as the potential to work as part of a team. 

Desirable Criteria
Specific knowledge of techniques for panel data analysis. 
Existing experience directly in the area of the topic applied.
Evidence of active engagement with the area of the topic applied including student publications, internship experience and social media activity. 
Experience of preparing research papers. 

Additional Information
About the Stirling Management School Behavioural Science Center
Formed in 2012, the Behavioural Sciences Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre which brings together approaches from economics and psychology to address the key questions in society, such as how to better understand and foster economic and industrial prosperity, decision making and behaviour, and health and well-being. The centre pursues these goals through basic science and applied research, educational programmes, and industrial collaborations. Full details of the work of the behavioural science centre at Stirling are available at the website below. We strongly encourage candidates to explore this website.
http://www.stir.ac.uk/management/research/behavioural-science-centre/

About Stirling Economics Division
The Economics Division at The University of Stirling Management School is committed to the pursuit of excellence in both research and teaching.  Our Division is a lively community with friendly and approachable academic staff.  We consistently perform well in national rankings and league tables. For example:
  • We are ranked 3rd in Scotland (2016 Guardian League Table)
  • We scored 91 for course satisfaction (2016 Guardian League Table)
  • The University was also placed in top 5 in the UK for being a “best-value” University (Telegraph, 2012). 
  • Our School is ranked among the top 25 institutions in the UK for Business and Management (The Higher Education Research Excellence Framework, 2014).
Our staff have undertaken prominent work in a number of key areas:
  • Environmental, Resource and Energy Economics,
  • Public Health Economics
  • Behavioural Economics
  • Work, Wellbeing, and Ageing
We are heavily involved in policy-relevant work, have strong links with the business community and have a strong culture of collaboration.
For more information about research in Economics, visit http://www.stir.ac.uk/management/research/economics/.

How to apply: 
Applicants should send a 2-page CV, academic transcripts and a 2-page cover letter to economics@stir.ac.uk before July 8th 2016 at 5pm. The cover letter should set out which project you are applying for and why you are interested in the project and in pursuing a PhD at Stirling. Applicants will be notified in mid-July. We also require proof of English language proficiency (if English is not your first language). Please indicate the name and contact details of two referees.

Informal enquires should be addressed to
Professor Liam Delaney Liam.Delaney@stir.ac.uk (Projects 1 and 3)
Professor David Bell d.n.f.bell@stir.ac.uk (Project 2)
Dr. Seda Erdem seda.erdem@stir.ac.uk (Project 4) 

When do people value old stuff?

Posted by Economist Channel on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 Label:
BSC member Simon McCabe explores the role of mortality concerns.

This research examines how death reminders impact the valuation of objects of various ages. Building from the existence bias, the longer-is-better effect posits that which exists is good and that which has existed for longer is better. Integrating terror management theory, it was reasoned that mortality reminders fostering a motivation to at least symbolically transcend death would lead participants to evaluate older object more positively as they signal robustness of existence. Participants were reminded of death (vs. control) and evaluated new, 20-, or 100-year-old objects. Results indicated death reminders resulted in greater valuation of older objects. Findings are discussed with implications for terror management theory, the longer-is-better effect, ageism, materialism, and consumer behaviour.

June Events at Stirling Behavioural Science Centre

Posted by Economist Channel on Saturday, April 23, 2016 Label:
On the week beginning June 6th, we have a number of events here at Stirling. Please register on the respective pages if you like to participate.

On the 7th and 8th June, we will host a two-day workshop on statistical techniques using STATA. There will be a fee of £100 to cover the costs of this training. 

On the 9th June, our second PhD Conference in Behavioural Science will take place. There is no registration fee. 

On the 10th June, we will hold our 9th and final ESRC Workshop on Behavioural Science and Public Policy. The keynote speakers are Professor David Laibson and Professor Ulrich Witt. There is no registration fee. 



Other helpful links: 

2nd Using Large Publicly Available Datasets for Psychology and Social Sciences research (7th and 8th June 2016)

Posted by Economist Channel on Thursday, April 21, 2016 Label:
.

There are now many publicly available datasets within the UK (such as those hosted by the UK Data Service) and across the world. These data have been collected with the primary purpose of enabling researchers to better understand how people function within the world around them. Although these data-sets are free to access and are commonly used within economics and epidemiology, they remain under-utilized in many disciplines in the social sciences, particularly psychology. This is unfortunate given that many of these datasets contain measures and scales relevant to cutting-edge psychological research, such as personality, well-being, attitudes, behaviour, physical health and mental health. One barrier to unlocking these datasets' potential is having the necessary skills to manage and analyse them. We at the Behavioural Science Centre, Stirling Management School, funded by the Economic Social and Research Council (ESRC), are offering a 2-day training workshops specifically built around these datasets to equip you with the necessary skills, which includes an introduction to the statistical package Stata, to handle them.

Participants will learn advanced statistical methodology to enable them to get the most out of large publicly available datasets. This will include panel data techniques such as understanding and implementing fixed effect and difference-in-difference models, as well as how to implement instrumental variable estimations. This workshop will require that participants have a basic knowledge of handling large datasets and using the statistical program Stata. 


Tuesday June 7th

Wednesday June 8th

09:00  Registration

09:30  Lecture: Difference-in-Difference
09:30  Lecture: OLS & RCTs
10:45  Break
10:45  Break
11:00  Lecture: Matching and other techniques
11:00  Lecture: Instrumental Variables
12:30  Lunch
12:30  Lunch
13:30  Lab Session 3
13:30  Lab Session 1
15:20  Break
15:20  Break
15:30  Lab Session 4 
15:30  Lab Session 2
17:30  Close
17:30  Close


Further details: the course will take place at Stirling Management School, University of Stirling. At our Behavioural Science Centre we have a number of researchers, including Prof Liam Delaney, Dr Michael Daly (early Career Award recipient, UK Society for Behavioural Medicine), and Prof Alex Wood and Dr Christopher Boyce (joint winners, best paper using GSOEP data resource 2012-2013), with substantial experience using and publishing with these types of datasets. Both workshops are aimed at PhD students but advanced Masters students and post-PhD researchers are welcome to apply. The University of Stirling is approximately 50 minutes by train from Edinburgh, 25 minutes from Glasgow and 5 hours from London. The course is funded by the ESRC and the cost to participants is £100 (in addition to accommodation and transport). There are a limited number of fee waiving scholarships that will be given depending on the strength of the applications and availability.

During this course, we will discuss/replicate* the results of the following publications 
OLS & RCTs
Blundell, Richard W.; Dias, Monica Costa (2008). Alternative approaches to evaluation in empirical microeconomics, IZA discussion papers, No. 3800. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35767

A. Colin Cameron and P. Trivedi (2005) Microeconometrics: methods and applications. Cambridge university Press. Available at: http://www.centroportici.unina.it/centro/Cameron&Trivedi.pdf . Specially Chapter 25, p. 860-898.
Charles J. Courtemanche; Garth Heutel and Patrick McAlvanah (2011) Impatience, incentives, and obesity. NBER Working Paper 17483, Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w17483
Gong, Eric. (2014) HIV testing and risky sexual behaviour. Economic Journal, 125, 32-60. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ecoj.12125/abstract 
Instrumental variables
*Joshua D. Angrist and Alan B. Krueger (1991) Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings? The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 106, No. 4 (Nov., 1991), pp. 979-1014.

*Joshua D. Angrist and William N. Evans (1998) Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size. The American Economic Review, Vol. 88, No. 3, pp. 450-477. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/116844
Sascha O. Becker and Ludger Woessmann. (2009) Was Weber Wrong? A Human Capital Theory of Protestant Economic History. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 124 (2): 531-596. 
Difference-in-Differences
*David Card and Alan Krueger (1994) Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast-Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The American Economic Review, Vol. 84, No. 4. , pp. 772-793. Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w4509
Matching on propensity scores
*Rajeev H. Dehejia; Sadek Wahba (1999) Causal Effects in Nonexperimental Studies: Reevaluating the Evaluation of Training Programs. Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 94, No. 448., pp. 1053-1062.
Control function
*Matias Cattaneo (2010) Efficient semiparametric estimation of multi-valued treatment effects under ignorability. Journal of Econometrics 155 (2010) 138–154. 

ESRC PhD Studentship to Research at the Centre

Posted by Economist Channel on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 Label:
See below for a 3-year ESRC funded PhD studentship working with Dr. Michael Daly and I. 

Post Details

PhD Studentship Stirling Management School 
Full-Time with Start Date on October 1st 2016 (with some flexibility)
Closing date: 5pm on 8th July 2016
Salary: Fees plus 14k per annum
Eligibility: Please see details of whether you are eligible to apply on the relevant ESRC website 

The Post

This 3-year PhD studentship, jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Skills Development Scotland (SDS), is targeted at a highly motivated individual who wishes to work with our team on a study on a project entitled "A Lifespan Approach to Understanding Equality of Opportunity and Career Development in Scotland and the UK" . The successful applicant will conduct their PhD either in Economics or in Business and Management working with Professor Liam Delaney and Dr. Michael Daly of the Stirling Management School Behavioural Science Centre.

Description of Duties

This project will utilise the substantial cohort study data available in the UK to examine the drivers of labour market inequality across the UK with a particular focus on Scotland and differences between Scotland and RUK. The project will apply longitudinal data analysis techniques to examine gender, ethnic, disability, religious and socioeconomic differences in key education and employment outcomes across the life-cycle. We will utilise the National Child Development Cohort Study, British Cohort Study, Understanding Society and other large UK data-sets. We will examine the extent to which inequalities interact with the development of a wide range of hard and soft skills throughout childhood and adolescence, providing key information on the potential importance of such skills to labour market outcomes across the lifespan. We will publish the findings in a range of academic journals in economics, psychology and wider social science. The work builds on our previous SDS-funded project which has published several papers in top-tier journals examining the role of mental health and non-cognitive traits in shaping labour market outcomes. We will continue to disseminate the findings of this work to policy-makers and the wider public through our active social media and workshop programme and in conjunction with the SDS. The PhD student will be guided to work within this project but given substantial support to develop their own independent ideas within the overall topic. Some of the papers below give an idea of the approach our research is taking and potential applicants should read these papers in deciding whether this type of research would be suited to them:



Daly, M., Delaney, L., Egan, M., & Baumeister, R. F. (2015). Childhood self-control and unemployment throughout the lifespan: evidence from two British cohort studies. Psychological Science, 26, 709 - 723.

The successful candidate will enter Stirling Management School as a PhD in Economics and will participate in the Economics DTC pathway. The primary supervisor (Delaney) was PhD Director for the Economics pathway in Scotland for over four years and Stirling is a very active participant in training on this pathway. The student will participate in advanced modules, summer school programmes and masterclasses on this pathway. Stirling is also an active participant on the Business and Management pathway, having received two of the studentships on this pathway in the last two years. On top of pathway training, the student will attend weekly meetings of the Behavioural Science Centre in Stirling and will participate in statistical training and related options being offered locally in Stirling. Our MSc programme in Behavioural Science provides a range of relevant modules and will encourage the candidate to attend modules that are relevant to the completion of the thesis - for example there are modules on behavioural economics and advanced survey and empirical analysis techniques that are designed explicitly to train people for this type of project. The student will also receive mentorship from SDS and will attend seminars and workshops with other SDS-funded PhD students. 

Essential Criteria

Strong intrinsic interest in research at the intersection of Economics and Psychology. 
Ability and willingness to contribute to the intellectual life of the center including participating in seminars, journal clubs, group discussions and related activity. 
MSc training in Economics or Psychology with a strong emphasis on statistics.
Excellent written and oral communication skills.
Ability to work individually and autonomously as well as potential to work as part of a team. 
Some proficiency in STATA and/or SPSS. 

Desirable Criteria

Specific knowledge of techniques for panel data analysis. 
Existing experience directly in the area of statistical analysis of determinants of psychological welfare. 
Evidence of active engagement with the area of behavioural science including student publications, internship experience and social media activity. 
Experience of preparing research papers. 

Additional Information

About the Stirling Management School Behavioural Science Center

Formed in 2012, the Behavioural Sciences Centre is an interdisciplinary research centre which brings together approaches from economics and psychology to address the key questions in society, such as how to better understand and foster economic and industrial prosperity, decision making and behaviour, and health and well-being. The centre pursues these goals through basic science and applied research, educational programmes, and industrial collaborations. Full details of the work of the behavioural science centre at Stirling are available at the website below. We strongly encourage candidates to explore this website.


How to apply: 

Applicants should send a 2-page CV, academic transcripts and a 2-page cover letter to Lisa.Reid@stir.ac.uk before 8th July 2016 at 5pm. The cover letter should set out why you are interested in the project and in working with the behavioural science group at Stirling. Applicants will be notified before the end of May. 

Informal enquires should be addressed to Professor Liam Delaney-Liam.Delaney@stir.ac.uk

April 15th Workshop on Behavioural Science, Measurement and Policy

Posted by Economist Channel on Label:
This workshop addresses innovations in measurement in the social and behavioural sciences. It is the eight and final workshop in our series. We examine a number of key themes in the development of rich measurement tools and pragmatic survey designs including: the integrated use of brief psychometric measures, experience sampling, and wearable devices to measure behaviour, attitudes, well-being and health in a brief-yet-precise manner. In addition, this workshop will consider ethical and privacy considerations, issues of response bias, the extent to which participants will give accurate responses, the potential impact of implementing this measurement in a policy context, and the traits and behaviours that are particularly important to measure in different policy contexts. It will also address problems of statistical inference and publication bias that relate to the presence of widespread secondary data and private researcher decisions. 

Please register here to attend the workshop. Registration is free of charge. It takes place in the Court Room, on the fourth floor of the Cottrell Building in Stirling.


Workshop on Behavioural Science, Measurement and Policy

845 to 915 Registration 

915 to 930 Welcome 

930 to 1015am

Dr. Leonhard Lades (Stirling University)

Measuring self-control in everyday life: Implications for present bias and subjective well-being. 
  
Abstract: It is difficult to name a problematic behaviour in our lives that is independent of a self-control failure. Accordingly, self-control has received massive attention in economics and psychology. In ongoing research, we combine state-of-the-art theories and methodologies from both disciplines and measure self-control failures in people's everyday lives. Applying this novel approach to measuring everyday decision making, firstly we test whether individual differences in present bias predict self-control failures in everyday life. Secondly, we identify episodes in which study participants have self-control failures and compare subjective well-being across episodes.

1015 to 11am

Dr. Mark McGovern (Queen's University Belfast)

Designing RCTs and Observational Studies to Account for Missing Data not Missing at Random

Missing data is a common feature of both survey data and RCTs, which has the potential to greatly impact on the policy recommendations we derive from empirical studies. Non-response can lead to biased estimates if the characteristics of respondents systematically differ from those who decline to participate. In practice, if any adjustments for missing data are made, they tend to be based on either multiple imputation or inverse probability weighting. Conventional methods such as these all rely on a key assumption: missing data must be missing at random, or missing at random conditional on observed covariates. This is a strong and generally untestable assumption which is unrealistic in many settings, especially where some respondents have an incentive not to participate. An alternative approach, Heckman-type selection models, can be used for dealing with missing data. This method can provide consistent estimates even when the assumption of missing at random does not hold, and respondents systematically opt out of survey participation on the basis of unobserved confounders. Using examples from research on HIV, I illustrate the consequences of imposing an unrealistic missing at random assumption on survey data. I conclude by discussing how to design RCTs and observational studies to facilitate the implementation of this selection model approach.

11 to 1130am Break 

1130 to 1215pm

Professor Marjon Van Pol (Aberdeen University)

Improving the measurement of time preferences

The interest in measuring individuals’ time preferences is growing in both economics and psychology. Time preferences describe individuals’ preferences over when outcomes occur and are a determinant of a range of important life outcomes such as health and education. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the robustness of the design of the elicitation methods. In standard economic theory, the design of the elicitation method is irrelevant as individuals have fully formed and highly articulated preferences which they can quickly and accurately access and which are not affected by design features. However, evidence from stated preferences methods such as contingent valuation suggests that individuals construct their preferences and may use decision heuristics in experiments. The design of the elicitation method matters in this case and may lead to different policy recommendations. In this paper we test the internal validity of the most commonly used time preference elicitation method, the multiple price list, drawing on insights from the contingent valuation literature.  We test for both an order effect and the effect of a truth telling oath in an online survey. We compare the % of ‘theoretically inconsistent’ responses, response times and average rates of time preference.  The preliminary results suggests a strong order effect and a weaker effect of a truth telling oath.

1215pm to 1pm   

Dr. Daniel Powell (Aberdeen University)

Real-time tracking of state inhibitory control and health behaviour in daily life: an overview of the SNAPSHOT study

Several contemporary theories of health behaviour, including temporal self-regulation theory and the various dual process theories, suggest that variations in cognitive efficiency should have important consequences for health behaviour. However, little research has tested how health behaviours may be influenced by dynamic fluctuations in executive functioning within individuals in daily life. The SNAPSHOT (SNAcking, Physical activity, Self-regulation, and Heart-rate Over Time) study is a 7-day ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study incorporating various wearable devices, including accelerometers, heart-rate monitors, GPS trackers, and a wrist-mounted electronic diary. In a community sample of 68 participants, hourly self-reports of snacking behaviour and – uniquely – objective measures of inhibitory control (the Go/No-Go test) were requested via the diary. This talk will (i) provide an overview of the findings we have in relation to associations between inhibitory control and snacking behaviour, (ii) detail clear individual differences in the contextual correlates of snacking in daily life, and (iii) outline some of the methodological challenges, particularly with the Go/No-Go test.
1pm to 2pm Lunch 

2pm to 245pm 

Dr. Stephan Bruns (University of Kassell)

P-curve and p-hacking in observational research

The p-curve, the distribution of statistically significant p-values of published studies, has been used to make inferences on the proportion of true effects and on the presence of p-hacking in the published literature. We analyze the p-curve for observational research in the presence of p-hacking. We show by means of simulations that even with minimal omitted-variable bias (e.g. unaccounted confounding) p-curves based on true effects and p-curves based on null-effects with p-hacking cannot be reliably distinguished. We also demonstrate this problem using as practical example the evaluation of the effect of malaria prevalence on economic growth between 1960 and 1996. These findings call recent studies into question that use the p-curve to infer that most published research findings are based on true effects in the medical literature and in a wide range of disciplines. p-values in observational research may need to be empirically calibrated to be interpretable with respect to the commonly used significance threshold of 0.05. Violations of randomization in experimental studies may also result in situations where the use of p-curves is similarly unreliable.

245pm to 330pm 

Professor Alex Bryson (UCL)

The Biometric Antecedents to Happiness

Abstract

Happiness is beneficial to individuals and society. Happier individuals are more productive, more resilient to illness and disease, and live longer. However, little is known about its antecedents and, in particular, its relationship with biometric indicators of wellbeing. What  is known is based largely on cross-sectional data. We contribute to the empirical literature by examining the independent association between various aspects of biometric wellbeing measured in childhood and happiness in adulthood. We find only one of the eight biomarkers we consider predicts happiness in adulthood: serum triglycerides, which are a type of fat found in the circulation, are negatively associated with subsequent happiness. The finding is robust to controls for age, sex, body size, family background, nutritional intake, physical activity, income, education and labour market experiences, as well as other biomarkers measured in childhood. It suggests higher levels of serum triglycerides in childhood can be damaging to one’s happiness in adulthood.

330pm to 415pm 

Dr. David Comerford (Stirling)

Agency: Its role in the measurement of preferences and utility

 Abstract:

We distinguish between agentic preference (preference regarding outcomes that the consumer can actively influence); and non-agentic preference (preference regarding outcomes that are passively received). We theorize that agentic preference is informed by the signalling value of endorsing an outcome, and by the reputational value of being responsible for that outcome. Non-agentic preference is not informed by either of these sources of value. Often, policymakers need to measure non-agentic preferences, for instance, when measuring the costs inflicted by an externality. We present experimental evidence that agentic preference orderings over a given choice set can differ systematically from non-agentic preference orderings. We present examples from the literature where agentic preferences are used to infer non-agentic utility, and where non-agentic preferences are used to infer agentic utility. We conclude that our typology of agentic and non-agentic preference can clarify utility measurement.

Workshop on Mental Health, Work and the Economy March 24th

Posted by Economist Channel on Wednesday, April 6, 2016 Label:

This workshop, which place in Stirling on March 24th, brought together academics across economics, psychology and health disciplines as well as practitioners and policy-makers to examine the emerging literature on mental health, work and the economy. The workshop critically addressed several themes including, but not limited to, the economic determinants of well-being and mental health, the contribution of mental health to life-long economic trajectories, the potential for expansion of the mental health services, and the role of mental health in labour market policy. This workshop is the latest in a series of workshops on well-being and economics that have been held in Stirling in the last few years. Details of the previous workshop held at the Scottish Parliament are available below:

http://economicspsychologypolicy.blogspot.ie/2015/09/future-directions-for-well-being-policy.html

See the twitter hashtag #mhandwork for further details. Also see here and here for detailed relevant readings and links.

The workshop included debate on some of the key questions in the area of mental health and employment, including:

What is the state of empirical evidence on the relationships between mental health and employment? What gaps remain?

How should evidence of relationships between mental health and employment translate into policy?

What ethical considerations does the use of mandatory psychological interventions and the emergence of psychological conditionality as part of workfare programmes raise?

What potential harm might be created by inappropriate use of psychological approaches in work activation settings?

Preliminary Programme:

8.45am to 9am: Registration 

9am to 9.15am: Introduction and Aims 

9.15am to 9.45am: Victoria Mousteri (PhD Student Stirling)


In the aftermath of the Great Recession, the sharp increase in unemployment has given rise to a broad discussion regarding the long-run welfare effects of unemployment. The objective of the current study is to examine unemployment scarring and to test whether unemployment has long-term repercussions for individual well-being. The relationship linking past unemployment experiences to later life satisfaction is identified across ten European countries: Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The analysis is based on a longitudinal, balanced sample created out of the retrospective employment history data of SHARE’s third wave, covering the period from 1970 to 2009, as well as the survey’s contemporary data on respondents’ life conditions collected in 2004-5, 2006-7 and 2011-12. The scarring effect of unemployment on life satisfaction is identified using a linear model estimated with individual random-effects and country level mixed-effects techniques. The estimation results indicate that having gone through one additional six-month spell of unemployment predicts lower life satisfaction by approximately 0.05 standard deviations after the age of 50. The findings also suggest that unemployment experiences acquainted during the sensitive period of one’s early years in the market could have a long-run psychological scarring effect on human welfare. 

9.45am to 10.15am: Daniel Kopasker (PhD Student Aberdeen, with Catia Montagna, and Keith Bender)

The Mental Health Effects of Work-Related Economic Insecurity



This paper estimates the impact of work-related economic insecurity on the mental health of working-age adults in the UK. Data on the mental health of the UK workforce is sourced from the GHQ-12 index within the British Household Panel Survey between 1993 and 2007. By using exogenous fluctuations in economic conditions as an identification strategy, we have been able to support theoretical predictions regarding the direction of simultaneity bias within the economic insecurity and mental health relationship. The results suggest that even at a lower bound of the estimates, work-related economic insecurity has a large, negative, and statistically significant effect on the mental health of working-age males. Consistent with some of the existing literature, the effect is not observed in females. Importantly, the detrimental effect in males is observed regardless of future unemployment outcomes. As such, the welfare loss resulting from work-related economic insecurity represents a largely hidden health cost associated with employment in the UK. 

10.15am to 10.45am: Coffee 

10.45am to 11.15am: Michael Daly and Liam Delaney (Stirling)


There has been a great deal of research examining the effect of unemployment on well-being and mental health. It is now widely agreed that unemployment has costs to individuals in psychological terms that outweigh the associated income and wealth loss. However, a better understanding of the relationship between unemployment and mental health over time is required. As well as being a factor influencing mental ill-health, unemployment may clearly itself be influenced by mental health. The extent to which these relationships build up from childhood through adolescence and into early- and mid-adulthood is a key question which it is necessary to address in order to understand the role of education and employment policies. We utilise a number of large cohort study data-sets from around the world to provide estimates to date of the dual relationship between unemployment and mental ill-health and the factors influencing this relationship. We further examine the extent to which mental health and well-being influences unemployment at different stages of the life course and the business cycle.

11.15am to 12.00pm: Dr. Adam Coutts (Cambridge University) 

The Health and Well-being Effects of Active Labour Market Programmes



1200 to 1245pm: Lunch 

12.45pm to 1.25pm: Dr. Aaron Reeves (Oxford University)


During the 2007–11 recessions in Europe, suicide increases were concentrated in men but also observed among women. Yet, there were substantial differences across countries in how the economic crisis affected suicide rates. This cross-national variation suggests that policy may alter the association between unemployment and suicide. Using suicide data across 20 countries between 1981 and 2011, I examine the aggregate-level association between unemployment rates and suicide rates, as well as potential mitigating effects of alternative forms of social protection and gender equality. As expected, rising unemployment is associated with rising suicides, for both men and women. I also find that some (but not all) forms of social protection spending may moderate the link between unemployment and suicide. Similarly, the unemployment-suicide association is weaker in countries with greater gender equality. Yet, the moderating effect of these policy contexts is greater for men than for women.

1.25pm to 2.05pm Professor Wendy Loretto (Edinburgh University)

Later-life work and employee mental health: a neglected aspect of Extending Working Lives policy agenda?



In the context of population ageing across many economies a focus on extending working life and delaying retirement has come to the fore. Policies typically emphasise the mutual benefits – for societies, for employing organisations and for older employees themselves. However, the (mental) health benefits of working for longer have not been firmly demonstrated. This presentation will draw upon a variety of mainly UK-based studies to cast a critical eye on the ways in which later life working may affect individuals’ health and well-being.  In particular it will aim to differentiate between different subgroups of ‘older workers’ in order to highlight the problems with treating this segment of the workforce as a homogeneous unit.

2.05pm to 2.45pm: Dr. Lynne Friedli (Researcher at Hubbub at the Wellcome Collection)


My paper is concerned with the use of psychological interventions in workfare (work for your benefits) programmes and in the rise of psychological conditionality: the requirement to demonstrate certain attitudes and beliefs in order to receive social security and other benefits, notably cheap food.  A certain psychological fundamentalism, and the discourse of psychological deficit, now dominate the welfare to work industry and, I will argue, contribute centrally to stigmatising (and disciplining) people who are unemployed or receiving income related benefits.  I will reflect on the growing influence of psychology and the role of psycho-policy in formulating and gaining consent for the current regime of welfare reform, as well as the implications of efforts to merge health and employment services.  These developments have been a catalyst for widespread resistance from claimants, mental health and disability rights activists and increasingly, from within the psy-professions.  They raise profound ethical questions which urgently need our attention.

2.45pm to 3.40pm: Panel Discussion 


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