Kentucky Symposium on Policy Evaluation and Causal Inference
March 14-17, 2020

Organized by Jose Manuel Fernandez and Austin Nichols, with some financial help from Stata.

How to attend:

  1. Sign up to present a paper or tutorial, or just attend if you prefer, and sign up for conference options on this google form. There is some craziness to incentivize participants to sign up early:
    1. First 28 people to sign up are in with probability one.
    2. Next 28 people to sign up by February 14, 2020, are in with probability 28/N, where N is the number who sign up by then.
    3. We will discuss at the conference how to estimate the impact of the conference on attendees, and may write a joint paper about it.
  2. Pay the $300 registration fee, below or via paypal to austinnichols@gmail.com, which covers most costs for meals and activities (cost is also subsidized by Austin Nichols and Stata). In particular, tour bus transfers are included for the first 55 registrants who pay the registration fee (all taxi or miscellaneous car sharing costs are at own expense).
  3. Book Louisville nights of 3/13 and 3/14 at $119/night, at the Marriott website using our group code (SpringHill Suites Louisville Downtown, 132 E Jefferson Louisville, Kentucky 40202).
  4. Book Frankfort nights of 3/15 and 3/16 at $89/night: make reservations by calling the hotel direct at 502-227-5100, or visit the Capital Plaza website, and refer to Group code 4324.
Registration options

Schedule

Check in Friday night at SpringHill Suites 132 E Jefferson St, Louisville, KY 40202.

Day 1, Saturday, March 14: University of Louisville

  • 8am to 2:30pm sessions on advances in experimental design, statistical adjustment, instrumental variables, control functions, external validity in experiments, measurement error, regression discontinuity and kink designs, the Identification and Estimation of Endogenous Peer Effects in Multiplex Networks, an ERM model for causal inference for an endogenous treatment when there is endogenous sample selection
  • Afternoon activities:
    • 3pm π Day semicircular run (π miles, just over 5K) in Louisville along the river (3:14pm start time)
    • 4-6pm tours of Main St distilleries (all 3 are a 37 minute walk) in small groups at own expense:
      • Kentucky Peerless Distilling Co, 120 North 10th Street, Louisville, KY 40202
      • Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, 528 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202
      • Rabbit Hole Distillery, 711 E Jefferson St, Louisville, KY 40202
    • Or 4-6pm walking tour across Big Four Bridge, to Schimpff's Confectionery, and the Falls of the Ohio State Park
    • 6pm tour and dinner at the Finishing Room, Angel's Envy Distillery, 500 E Main St, Louisville, KY 40202
    • (alcohol-free alternative at own expense) Actors Theatre 44th Humana Festival of New American Theater & dinner at Milkwood (Asian-Southern fusion)
    • Optional late night meetup at Hell or High Water, 112 W Washington St, Louisville, KY 40202

Day 2, Sunday, March 15: University of Louisville

  • 8am to noon sessions
    • 8am Regression adjustment and the LASSO for causal inference: David Drukker
    • 9am Difference in difference designs: Andrew Goodman-Bacon
    • 10am Estimating propensity scores using machine learning: Linden McBride
    • 11am Bunching estimators: Steven Hamilton
  • Afternoon activities: bus leaves at noon
    • 12:30pm lunch, tour, and tasting at Jeptha Creed 500 Gordon Ln, Shelbyville, KY 40065
    • 3pm 1.5 hour Castle & Key Experience tour and tasting at Castle & Key Distillery, 4445 McCracken Pike, Frankfort, KY 40601
    • 5pm dinner at The Stave, 5711 McCracken Pike, Frankfort, KY 40601
    • 7:30pm arrive Capital Plaza Hotel, 405 Wilkinson Blvd, Frankfort, KY 40601

Day 3, Monday, March 16: Woodford Reserve Distillery

  • Bus leaves 8am
  • 8:30am to 1:30pm sessions in the Creekside Room, Dryer House, at Woodford Reserve Distillery, 7785 McCracken Pike, Versailles, KY 40383
    • 8:30am Moving From What Works To What Replicates: Vivian Wong
    • 9:30am Instrumental Variable Tests for Adverse Selection: Coady Wing
    • 10:30am Unbiased Instrumental Variables
    • 11:30am lunch
    • 12:10pm tour and tasting
  • 2pm tour & tastings at Wild Turkey Distillery, 1417 Versailles Rd, Lawrenceburg, KY 40342
  • 4:30pm arrive Capital Plaza Hotel, 405 Wilkinson Blvd, Frankfort, KY 40601
  • 6pm Single Oak Room & George T. Stagg Gallery, Buffalo Trace, tour followed by dinner

Day 4, Tuesday, March 17: depart Capital Plaza Hotel, return to Louisville

  • 8am to noon sessions at the hotel, check out at noon to return to Louisville with a stop 1-3pm at:
  • Boundary Oak Distillery, 2000 Boundary Oak Dr, Radcliff, KY 40160
  • 4pm arrive Louisville airport (SDF)