Hosted by La Follette Assistant Professor Héctor Pifarré i Arolas, the 2024-25 La Follette Seminar Series kicked off on September 11 with a presentation by David Frisvold of the University of Iowa.
Frisvold presented his work on the effects of The Affordable Care Act’s requirements that chain restaurants post calorie information on menus and menu boards. He found that customers did not change their dining habits in terms of frequency in visiting different types of restaurants. However, consumers purchased items with fewer calories and other nutrients at the fast-food restaurants with the information posted.
The real-world application of this type of research is a hallmark of the La Follette Seminar Series. “The focus of this series is empirical, highly policy-relevant research that spans multiple disciplines,” Pifarré i Arolas says. “We will have leading researchers from various fields, including economics, sociology, political science, and demography, presenting their latest work on some of the most pressing policy issues of our time.”
Next up for the series, Brandon Stewart of Princeton University will visit La Follette on October 2 to discuss his work analyzing the wide-ranging influence of government-authored propaganda in the Chinese media ecosystem. This talk is co-sponsored by the Models, Experiments, and Data Workshop (MEAD).
The following week, Vanderbilt’s Kitt Carpenter will present on the evidence surrounding transgender earning gaps in the US on October 9. This talk is co-sponsored by Agricultural & Applied Economics.
Carpenter’s talk will be preceded by an informal lunch and learn event where he will discuss his work, the latest research on the LGBTQ+ community, and important considerations when conducting social science research on marginalized communities. Lunch will be provided.
In the spring, Nils Wernerfelt of Northwestern University and Oxford University’s Melinda Mills will present their work. These talks will be co-sponsored by the Department of Risk and Insurance in the Wisconsin School of Business and the Center for Demography of Health and Aging respectively.
The Seminar Series is open to all faculty, staff and students, but it is also a one-credit La Follette course that gives enrolled students the opportunity to attend policy-focused seminars across the UW-Madison campus. Students must attend at least 10 seminars, with at least one of those coming from the La Follette Seminar Series. Students can also attend seminars with the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Center for Demography of Health and Aging, Population Health Sciences, and more.
“I hope this series continues the long tradition at La Follette of providing our community with an opportunity to connect with top researchers in their fields and hear firsthand about some of the most interesting work currently taking place around key policy issues,” Pifarré i Arolas says.