The La Follette School Seminar Series engages participants in discussion of a range of public policy issues and showcases the research of faculty from the La Follette School, other UW-Madison departments, and outside the UW-Madison community. Faculty, students, and visitors take part in lively dialogue about topics such as poverty and welfare, health, education, international affairs, trade and finance, and the environment. For more information, email Assistant Professor Mariel Barnes.
Unless otherwise noted, all fall 2021 presentations are live online via Zoom from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., and there is no cost to attend. The Sept. 22 and Oct. 17 also will be in-person in 1328 Sterling Hall. Registration is required for most seminars. Please check back periodically for updated information.
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021 – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Understanding Geographic Disparities in Mortality
Presenter: Professor Jason Fletcher, UW–Madison, La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Sociology
Nearly all analysis of geographic disparities in health and mortality measure “places” where people die rather than where they were born. Yet, more than one-third of people leave their state of birth over their lifetimes. Professor Jason Fletcher and colleagues use new data to compare life expectancies by state of residence and by state of birth.They find that geographic inequality in life expectancy are even higher based on state of birth, implying that migration undoes some of the large health disparities by birth-place that are typically hidden from view.
This seminar is available in person (1328 Sterling Hall) and via Zoom. Register here.
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021 – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Towards Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: Harnessing AI to Improve Human Decision-Making
Presenter: Chenhao Tan, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science, and affiliate, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
Language plays a central role in human activities, including policy applications. For instance, if AI systems can understand millions of medical notes produced every day, they can enhance medical diagnosis and health care in general. To enhance human decision-making with AI, human decision makers need to appropriately understand and use recommendations from AI. Chenhao Tan will present recent efforts in developing best practices for incorporating AI into human decision-making, using deceptive review detection as a testbed. The results demonstrate a tradeoff between human performance and human agency and show that explanations of machine predictions can moderate this tradeoff.
This seminar is available via Zoom only. Register here.
“Why is ‘Chicago’ deceptive?” Towards Building Model-Driven Tutorials for Humans
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2021 – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Asymmetry in Civic Information: An Experiment on Tax Participation among Small and Informal Firms in Togo
Presenter: Paul Dower, assistant professor, Department of Agricultural & Applied Economics, UW–Madison
In low-income countries, tax collection practices can give rise to a substantial wedge between firms' beliefs about what their tax obligations are and what they should actually pay, especially for small firms in the informal sector. Assistant Professor Paul Dower and colleagues ran a randomized controlled trial on informal and small scale firms in Lomé, Togo, to investigate whether alleviating this informational asymmetry improves tax participation. Surprisingly, the researchers found that treated firms, who they show are now better informed, participate less in the tax system. However, Dower and colleagues also found that this decline is steeper for treated firms with lower revenues at baseline. Given many of these firms are owner-operated, positive sorting by firm revenue is likely to be welfare-enhancing, the researchers provide suggestive evidence that this sorting also leads to an increase in total tax revenues.
This seminar is available in person (1328 Sterling Hall) and via Zoom. Register here.
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021 – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Entrenching Inequity, Eroding Democracy: State Preemption of Local Housing Policies
Presenter: Jamila Michener, associate professor, Department of Government, Cornell University
State preemption of local law is a powerful institutional mechanism that state legislatures deploy to inhibit or nullify municipal policy. Research to date has focused primarily on explaining the patterning and causes of preemption, with very little emphasis on understanding its political consequences. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews, Michener will discuss how tenant organizations that build power in race-class subjugated communities understand and respond to state preemption and consider the consequences for democracy.
This seminar is available via Zoom remotely and in Sterling 1328. Register here.