Economics & Public Policy Extra

20^th Feb, 2-3pm, 66/72 Gower Street, B.01 – Graduate School Cluster Room
Sources of socio-economic data

 27^th Feb, 2-3pm, 66/72 Gower Street, B.01 – Graduate School Cluster Room
Legal sources for human rights

6^th Mar, 2-3pm, 1-19 Torrington Place, 113 – Public Cluster
Nexis UK (newspaper database)

Would you like to know more about how to find books, journal articles, etc.?

If so, why not come along to the following training sessions.  No need to book, just turn up.

Tuesday 22nd Jan, Chadwick 2.33 – Public Cluster
1pm-2pm Legal resources for non-lawyers

 Wednesday 23rd Jan, Chadwick 2.33 – Public Cluster
12pm-1pm Introduction to Explore
1pm-2pm Resources for Arts & Humanities

 Friday 25th Jan, Chadwick 2.33 – Public Cluster
12pm-1pm Introduction to Explore
1pm-2pm Resources for Social & Historical Sciences

Please note that places will be allocated on a first come basis, but if demand is high we will run further sessions.

“British Government@LSE is a new initiative currently based in the Government Department to promote and develop research on British Government being conducted at the LSE: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/government/research/resgroups/BGatLSE/Home.aspx

From time to time there are changes to event details so we strongly recommend that if you plan to attend this event you check back on this listing on the day of the event.

If you would like to learn more about the British Government @ LSE programme please email gov.britgov@lse.ac.uk| and ask to join the mailing list.”

UCL Public Policy, UCL Grand Challenges, and Z/Yen are pleased to announce the autumn 2012 Long Finance Conference on Measures Beyond Money.

The Long Finance Autumn Conference 2012 will combine elements of the Long Finance and Grand Challenges agendas to focus on how to address development challenges in straitened economic times. It will draw particularly on the themes of the Green Growth and Global Health challenges. The event will provide a platform for informed and robust discussion to highlight the most important issues and to offer possible solutions that can have an impact at a policy level. This conference will consider how the challenge of achieving sustainable global prosperity impacts on developing nations, extending the discussion around sustainable growth beyond the economic issues of GDP and a low-carbon economy and engaging with some of the fundamental questions concerning societal infrastructure, what prosperity means and how we can evaluate and measure well-being in a meaningful way.

Speakers
Dr Stephen Fries, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Dr Paul Ekins , UCL Energy Institute
Dr Balazs Magyar, Bank Sarasin
Fiona Woolf CBE, Alderman, City of London
Professor Stephen Smith, UCL Economics
Professor Michael Mainelli, Z/Yen Group

2pm, 14 November 2012

A V Hill Lecture Theatre
Medical Sciences Building
UCL
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT

Followed by a drinks reception in the South Cloisters

To register for this event or to read more about UCL Public Policy, please see our website.

Family Resources Survey user meeting
Friday 22 June 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the Family Resources Survey.  It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided.  To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-06-22/

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An Introduction to the International Passenger Survey
Friday 29 June 2012
Basement Computer Lab, Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

A one-day workshop to introduce the International Passenger Survey to those with no or little knowledge of the IPS.

The workshop is free to attend and lunch will be provided.  To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-06-29/

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Health surveys user meeting
Tuesday 10 July 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the UK health surveys.  It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata.  The programme contains a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers and a poster session at lunchtime.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided.  To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-10/

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3-Day Multilevel Modelling Course: Modelling the impact of households and geographies in health research

Multilevel models and MCMC methods using the new STAT-JR package

A workshop given by:

Bill Browne, Centre for Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol
Ian Plewis, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester
Mark Tranmer, Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester

Wednesday 11 – Friday 13 July 2012, Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

The focus of this three day workshop is on the use of new statistical software, STAT-JR, for fitting complex statistical models.  We will focus on multilevel modelling where the multilevel structure is determined by the sample design, in particular on the way the methods can be applied to the Health Survey for England.  This structure will then be used to examine the extent to which variables such as height, weight and BMI are clustered by household and area and whether any of this variability can be accounted for by background variables such as social class and educational qualifications.

The first day will provide a general introduction to the dataset and STAT-JR.  On the second day we will give sessions on Bayesian statistics and MCMC methods that the package uses and then describe its application to continuous multilevel models.  On the third day we will finish by describing its use on binary response models and give a brief demonstration of an alternative E-book interface to the software.  The workshop will be a mixture of lectures and practical sessions using the software on the datasets provided.

What is STAT-JR?
For the beginner, STAT-JR allows access to many different statistical software packages (such as MLwiN, winBUGS and R) through a simple point and click interface.

For the advanced user, STAT-JR allows construction of their own functionality through the writing of or customising of the templates that the system is built upon.

For the software developer, STAT-JR allows incorporation of their packages within the system and easy comparison of their software with other packages that exist.

STAT-JR offers a web based test interface (‘webtest’) and an ‘ebook’ interface that can be used to create and view interactive documents with dynamic execution of the underlying content.

This workshop is jointly organised by ESDS Government and e-Stat, a quantitative node for the ESRC Digital Social Research programme which brings together academics working in statistics and computer science.

Prerequisites:
A working knowledge of multiple regression and the basics of sample design. This course will be ideal for those with limited knowledge of multilevel and MCMC methods who want to explore these in more detail or those with some knowledge of multilevel models who want to learn STAT-JR.

Cost:
the workshop fee is £95.  Bookings will not be confirmed until payment is received.

To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-11/

UCL Interdisciplinary Society for International Development, the UCL Grand Challenge of Global Health and UCL Public Policy are pleased to announce a symposium on “Lessons for Global Health from India”.

The event aims to bring together academic researchers and students, policy-makers, think-tanks, and NGOs to discuss some of the latest research on India, and the implications for global health. Emphasis will also be placed on the practical lessons that could be drawn from such research for addressing global health challenges and the implications for public policy at regional, national and global level.

Speakers:

Dr Vinay Bothra, UK Health Protection Agency
Dr Sushrut Jadhav, UCL Medical School
Dr Babken Babajanian, Overseas Development Institute
Tarit Mukhopadhyay, UCL Biochemical Engineering
Dr Ken Shadlen, Department of International Development, LSE

The event will be accompanied by a poster exhibition. To submit an abstract, please see our website..

Organised by the UCL Interdisciplinary Society for International Development, UCL Public Policy and the UCL Grand Challenge of Global Health.

Kennedy Lecture Theatre
Institute of Child Health
UCL
Guilford Ste
London
WC1N 1EH

Followed by a drinks reception in the Kennedy Foyer

To register for this event, please see our website.

Happiness, wellbeing and quality of life have been climbing up the public policy agenda in recent years, with governments apparently devoting increasing attention to how to improve people’s life satisfaction. But what lies beneath these warm words about the need to improve quality of life?

What makes people happy remains a hotly debated issue. With uncertainties about what conditions and interventions can improve happiness or quality of life, it remains unclear how governments and others can act to improve it, or how such improvements can be measured or recorded. This presents significant challenges to attempts to improve the happiness of populations. What can policy-makers learn from the scientific evidence on human happiness and how can they put this evidence into policy and practice?

This event will bring researchers and policy-makers together to explore some of the evidence on what makes people happy, including considering the relations between genes and happiness and what causes humans to be optimistic. It will seek to draw out the implications for policy and consider how policy-makers can act to help to improve quality of life and deliver on their promises of happiness.

Speakers:

• Dr Jan Emmanuel de Neve, UCL School of Public Policy

• Dr Tali Sharot, UCL Cognitive, Perceptual & Brain Sciences

• Dr Gemma Harper, Chief Social Researcher, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

• Stephen Hicks, Measuring National Well-being Progress, Office for National Statistics

The event will be chaired by Professor Brian Collins, UCL Centre for Engineering Policy.

6pm, 29 May 2012

Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre, Roberts Building, UCL, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE

Followed by a drinks reception in the Roberts Foyer

To register for this event or to read more about UCL Public Policy, please see the website.

Tuesday 20 March 2012
Royal Statistical Society, Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX

This meeting, organised by the Economic and Social Data Service, will provide a forum for data users and producers to meet and discuss new developments and exchange information about the Living Costs and Food Survey. The programme contains a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-03-20/

6pm, 19 March 2012

Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre
Roberts Building
UCL

Followed by a drinks reception in the Roberts Foyer, UCL

With one of the most tumultuous years in European affairs now just behind us, the challenges facing Europe today remain arguably as great as any faced in the history of the EU. Against this backdrop, the lecture will draw on the most recent opinion survey data from an annual survey by Edelman on the state of trust between four major constituencies – Government, Business, NGOs and the media – and examine what these findings means for the way in which each needs to understand the others, and how to engage with them as a result. It will also consider some specific implications for the European Union, its policy-making and institutions, and the conduct of public affairs in it, during such a time of crisis of confidence.

Speakers

Martin Porter, Managing Director, Edelman The Centre
Professor Richard Bellamy, UCL Europe Institute

The event will be chaired by Professor David Coen, UCL School of Public Policy

Organised by the UCL European Institute and UCL Public Policy

To register for this event or to read more about UCL Public Policy, please see our website.

Date: 6 March 2012
Location: Institute of Education, London

A few places are still available for a free workshop on mixed methods and narrative research that explores resources for secondary data analysis from the 1958 British Birth Cohort Study, also known as the National Child Development Study.

The workshop, which will take place on 6 March 2012 at the Institute of Education in London, will look at how qualitative resources from the study can be used in tandem with the quantitative longitudinal data to carry out mixed methods research. However researchers may also be interested in the qualitative materials in isolation as rich resources for secondary analysis or as material to help inform and frame new data collection.

This is one of a series of events, organised by ESDS, in support of the ESRC’s Secondary Data Analysis Initiative. These events are designed for researchers who are not current users of these ESRC-funded data resources, and who wish to apply for grants under this Initiative. It is not suitable for students.

This course is free to attend but booking is essential. Cancellations must be received within 5 working days of the event, otherwise a cancellation fee of £25 will be charged.

Book now to avoid disappointment. See details and booking form here http://www.esds.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=3102