gov3009-l September 2011

gov3009-l@lists.fas.harvard.edu

1 participants
3 discussions

Applied Statistics Workshop: Arthur Spirling on Wednesday, Sept. 28

by Konstantin Kashin

Dear all, Please join us for the Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) this Wednesday, September 28 from 12.00 - 1.30 pm in CGIS Knafel Room 354. Arthur Spirling, Assistant Professor at the Department of Government at Harvard University, will present a paper entitled "Partisan Convergence in Executive-Legislative Interactions: Modeling Debates in the House of Commons, 1832-1915". As always, a light lunch will be provided. The abstract for the presentation is: *We consider the interaction between members of the executive and backbenchers in the House of Commons between the Great Reform Act and the Great War, a period of radical internal reform that birthed the Westminster system in its current form. We gather new data of over a million speeches in seventeen thousand debates to model the way in which the cabinet-legislative relationship changed over time. In particular, we conceptualize debates as Markov chains moving between speaker states and focus on estimating transition probabilities of the same. We take a Bayesian mixed model approach, allowing for debate-level and ministry-level variation. We show a remarkable "convergence" in the behavior of ministers from different parties, beginning between the mid-1870s and late-1880s and coinciding with a series of important standing orders relating to the ability to ask questions in the Commons. While Tory ministers generally become more responsive, Liberal ministers are less involved in debate.* An up-to-date schedule for the workshop is available at http://www.iq.harvard.edu/events/node/1208. Best, Konstantin -- Konstantin Kashin Ph.D. Student in Government Harvard University Mobile: 978-844-0538 E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu Site: http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~kkashin/

12 years, 7 months

Applied Statistics Workshop: Maya Sen on Wednesday, Sept. 21

by Konstantin Kashin

Dear all, Please join us for the Applied Statistics Workshop (Gov 3009) this Wednesday, September 21 from 12.00 - 1.30 pm in CGIS Knafel Room 354. Maya Sen, a Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Government at Harvard, will give a practice job talk entitled "Natural Experiments, Judicial Quality, and Racial Bias in Federal Appellate Review". As always, a light lunch will be provided. The abstract for the presentation is: *In this paper, I find that cases decided by black federal lower-court judges are consistently overturned more often than cases authored by similar white judges. I estimate this effect by leveraging the fact that incoming cases to the U.S. courts are randomly assigned to judges, which ensures that black and white judges hear similar sorts of cases. The effect is robust and persists after matching exactly on measures for judicial quality (including quality ratings assigned by the American Bar Association (ABA)), previous professional and judicial experience, and partisanship. Moreover, by looking more closely at the ABA ratings scores awarded to judicial nominees, I demonstrate that this effect is unlikely to be attributable exclusively to differences between black and white judges in terms of quality. This study is the first to explore how higher-court judges evaluate opinions written by judges of color and it has clear normative implications: attempts to make the judiciary more reflective of the general population may have actually resulted in inequality in the aggregate, both for litigants and for judicial actors.* An up-to-date schedule for the workshop is available at http://www.iq.harvard.edu/events/node/1208. Best, Konstantin -- Konstantin Kashin Ph.D. Student in Government Harvard University Mobile: 978-844-0538 E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu Site: http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~kkashin/

12 years, 7 months

Test of Mailing List

by Konstantin Kashin

Hi all, In light of messages not going out on the mailing list for some reason for the past 2 weeks, I am testing the list now. Please disregard this message. Thanks, Konstantin -- Konstantin Kashin Ph.D. Student in Government Harvard University Mobile: 978-844-0538 E-mail: kkashin(a)fas.harvard.edu Site: http://people.fas.harvard.edu/~kkashin/

12 years, 7 months

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gov3009-l September 2011