Latin America Regional Hub Learning Days Workshop

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The Latin American regional hub of the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) global network is organizing a Learning Days workshop on experimental research methods as part of the launch of the Regional Hub office at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia.

The workshop will share the concepts and tools of experimental methodology for social science research. For this workshop, we aim to engage and support teams of researchers and practitioners working on studies related to migration and forced displacement in Latin America.

The main objective of Learning Days is to support researchers, practitioners, and implementing partners in the design of their experimental work on migration and forced displacement in Latin America.

This five-week workshop will include sessions on key aspects of the design of experimental impact evaluations, presentations of experimental research, statistical exercises (with and without statistical software), and sessions for participants to work on their research designs. Key topics include research design, causal inference, randomization, estimands and estimators, and threats to inference.

This event is part of the new Latin America Regional Hub office at Universidad de Los Andes, co-led by School of Economics professors Andrés Moya and Leopoldo Fergusson. Workshop instruction will be given by:

  • Antonella Bandiera (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México)
  • Juan Vargas (Universidad del Rosario)
  • Lina Maria Restrepo (Universidad del Valle)
  • Mauricio Romero (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México)
  • Santiago Saavedra (Universidad del Rosario)

In addition, Clara Bicalho (University of California, Berkeley) and Lily Medina (University of California, Berkeley) will provide support as graduate student instructors.

Eligibility

In order to be eligible, applicants must currently be working on an impact evaluation related to migration and forced displacement in Latin America. Ideally, applicants should apply as a team consisting of at least one academic researcher (based at a university in Latin America), and one practitioner/member of an implementing organization (working in Latin America). Note: either researchers or members of an implementing organization (working in Latin America and on these topics) are welcome to apply individually. However, teams that have already been assembled, as well as researchers or members of implementing institutions with prospects of forming a partnership, will be given priority in the selection process.

Researcher applicants must have training in social sciences and should have basic knowledge of statistics and/or econometrics. Prior familiarity with statistical software is a plus, but not a requirement. The workshop will be conducted in Spanish, but additional Spanish- and English-speaking advisors may be involved depending on the focus of participants’ projects.

Additional Benefits

After the completion of the workshop, the EGAP Regional Hub will conduct a round of seed funding for projects on this topic; research teams that participated in the workshop will be eligible to apply for this funding.

Furthermore, Teams will also have the opportunity to participate in the EGAP feedback sessions where they can get comments and suggestions from members of the EGAP global network on their experimental design.

Format/Timeframe

The workshop will begin the week of September 6, 2021, and will run through the week of October 4, 2021. Each week will consist of approximately 1.5 hours of virtual lecture/discussion time, along with periodic design presentations from instructors and other researchers, as well as ongoing workshopping of research designs.

Lecture/discussion sessions will be held at 11am Colombian time on either Monday or Friday (depending on the week). The schedule will be announced in full before the workshop begins.

At least one researcher member and one practitioner member of each participating team will be required to attend all sessions, but all members of participating teams are welcome to attend the sessions.

Timeline

30-Jul-2021    Application deadline
06-Sep-2021  Week 1: research design
13-Sep-2021  Week 2: causal inference
20-Sep-2021  Week 3: randomization
27-Sep-2021  Week 4: estimands and estimators
04-Oct-2021   Week 5: threats to inference

Applications and deadline

Please apply via the application form linked below and make sure you attach your CV (formato pdf). Applications are due by July 30, 2021.

Application form: https://forms.gle/wyE9PqditJotM4gL7

In case you have any questions please write to: egap_latam@uniandes.edu.co