SURF reading group for 2025 winter.
Topic: Missing Data Problem
Missing data is a common challenge in economics, finance, and machine learning research. Many empirical studies are complicated by nonresponse in surveys or the presence of relevant variables that are not observed. For instance, in political surveys conducted in Korea, the response rate is often 10% or lower, which significantly limits the credibility of the findings.
Plan: This winter, the reading group will focus on studying and discussing the missing data problem. The group’s activities will begin with exploring the following topics:
Missing mechanism, including the missing at random (MAR) assumption.
Statistical methods for addressing missing data problem, including (i) regression imputation, (ii) inverse probability weighting method, (iii) doubly robust method, and (iv) the worst-case bound.
Analogy between the missing data problem and the treatment effect estimation problem.
Reading List: The group will then read, present, and discuss several recent papers, including:
선거여론조사의 객관성, 신뢰성 제고를 위한 조사방법론 개선방안 연구 (2019). Find it here.
News articles concerning political surveys in Korea. For example, article 1; article 2; article 3 and many more.
Piketty and Saez (2003), "Income inequality in the United States, 1913-1998", Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Autor, Katz, and Kearney (2006), "The Polarization of the U.S. Labor Market", American Economic Review.
Bollinger, Hirsch, Hokayem, and Ziliak (2019), "Trouble in the Tails? What We Know about Earnings Nonresponse 30 Years after Lillard, Smith, and Welch", Journal of Political Economy.
Dutz, Huitfeldt, Lacouture, Mogstad, Torgovitsky, and van Dijk (2022), "Selection in surveys: using randomized incentives to detect and account for nonresponse bias", NBER working paper.
Group Activity: The group plans to meet twice every three weeks during the winter break.
Week 1: First meeting
Week 2: Lecture 1 - find it here. Presentation 1 (이승우, 류윤결)
Week 3: presentation 1 (송승은, 양준호), presentation 2 (이승우, 김원준), presentation 3 (김선호, 류윤걸)
Week 4: presentation1 (김원준, 김선호), presentation 2 (송승은, 류윤결), presentation 3 (양준호, 이승우)
Week 5: presentation 1 (양준호, 송승은), presentation 2 (류윤결, 김원준), presentation 3 (이승우, 김선호)
Week 6: Lecture 2 - find it here.
Week 7: presentation 1 (송승은, 이승우), presentation 2 (류윤결, 양준호), presentation 3 (김선호, 김원준).